Crystal Lee (she/她)
I am an Assistant Professor at MIT studying the politics of data, disability, and the internet. My main project right now is a new book on the social life of data visualization, which analyzes how the humble chart became one of the 20th century's most effective instruments of scientific, corporate, and bureaucratic power.
Here is my CV [PDF, HTML]. If you are looking for a bio, see here.
Recent posts
- The enshittification of things (and a list of private equity-owned companies) —
- Cutting the cord to the cloud —
- On happiness —
- Curiosities (February 2026) —
- "CSAM" vs "child porn" – does language matter? —
- What "The Devil Wears Prada" taught me about research —
- I got scooped —
- On distraction- and AI-free writing —
- On "optimal" writing software —
- Where to find $1 oysters on the Red Line —
- I'm struggling to teach and work with gen AI —
- Students "faking" disability are not the problem —
- Notes on running a more humane academic job search —
- On designing the perfect workflow —
- Does academic work really have to be new? —
- Experiments with Zettelkasten and writing in Markdown —
- What does a good internet look like, and how do we get there? (a liveblogged account) —
- Adam Berinsky on misinformation and what to do about it —
- Suresh Venkatasubramanian on practical AI governance —
- Ethan Zuckerman and the "quotidian web" —
- Food studies reading list —
- Back at writing —
- Two opinionated approaches to personal knowledgement management —
- Twenty-three books in 2023 —
- My project compost pile from my first semester as a professor —
- How to "know your worth" with non-academic work —
- Lessons from re-negotiating an academic job offer —
- Writing is hard —
- Unsolicited advice about bad conferences —
- My favorite vegetarian meat alternatives —
- How much have I been paid in academic (or ac-adjacent) jobs? —
- What can you ask for in a grant? —
- What can you negotiate for in an academic job offer? —
- Guides to academia —
- How to write a trade book, according to Bruce Schneier —
- Responsible tech job resources —
- I hate talking about the curb cut effect —
- Staying in the US as an international PhD student + advice for faculty —
- Introductory readings on participatory AI, part I —
- Introductory readings on participatory AI, part II —
- Readings on media and mediation —
- Readings in human-computer interaction & data visualization —
- Job market reflections —
- How to write an op-ed, according to Bruce Schneier —
- HASTS Common List: readings in science and technology studies —
- How I did my PhD —
- Questions I used to prepare for my academic job interview —
- Insights about misinformation for non-academics —
- Disability studies reading list —
- New blog, new me —
- Advice for potential MIT HASTS applicants —
- Do you need to get copyright permissions for images in a thesis? —
- Organizing PDFs for research —