Amy J. Ko

Today I’m proud to be trans. The world might think we’re delusional, weird, icky, and not human, but I think we’re creative, visionary, and everywhere.

And tired. Very, very, tired.

It's Trans Day of Visibility. I'm trans. So are ~100 million other people. This world is being terrible to us now, stripping our rights, banning us from public life. You can help by telling your governments and friends to stop being assholes. Thanks!

Today I'm grateful for U.S. universities. They are underfunded, under appreciated, and under attack, and yet the are full of devoted, curious, and brilliant people of integrity, charting the past, present, and future of humanity. I'm proud to work at one, fighting to keep them vibrant and strong.

Today I'm proud of the University of Washington for (finally) having paid parental leave (3 months)! https://hr.uw.edu/time-absence/faculty-leaves/faculty-paid-parental-leave-policy/

May the 4th be with you.

Today I'm proud of Jayne Everson for masterfully defending her dissertation, "Computing is for Everybody: Pedagogy for Joyful Secondary Computing." She shared 5 studies, demonstrating that feminist pedagogies encourage joyful secondary computing education. Congratulations Jayne!

Today I’m grateful for a research community that embraces everything from very serious intellectual debate to extremely silly theatrics and everything in between. Discovery is at the edges!

Today I’m grateful to be part of a vibrant community of teachers and learners! This was tonight’s Information School Showcase, celebrating the year’s learning. Thank you Victor Aque and all the staff for helping make it happen! And to all our students for being great learners.

Today I’m grateful for 27 years of support from the National Science Foundation, funding my education, research, and service to the world. All my grants are now terminated or non-renewed, as I believe too strongly in the American dream of equal opportunity. Until we meet again, federal funding.

Today I am grateful that today is over. Thanks to everyone who helped carry me to the finish line, and give me space to breathe.

Today I'm excited about the 2nd edition of Teaching Accessible Computing, which helps computing educators integrate accessibility topics into CS across the curriculum! This edition has 3 chapters on systems, sustainability, and capstones. Thanks to Alannah for editing.

bookish.press/tac

Today I’m grateful for the NSF continuing to support Graduate Research Fellowships. My wonderful PhD student Janet Jiang was just awarded, as was my excellent former REU student, Carlos Aldana Lira (now at UIUC). Congratulations Janet and Carlos!

Today I'm proud of our recently published ACM TOCE journal article, "Justice-Centered Educational Programming Language Design", which analyzes the many interconnections between justice and programming languages for learning. Thank you to my wonderful colleague Ben Shapiro and my excellent students Jayne Everson and Megumi Kivuva for writing it with me. Tell us what you think! https://doi.org/10.1145/3811022

Tonight I have gratitude for the love and care abundant my communities. Violent death is more than any one person to bear, and I’m glad so many faculty, staff, and students know that with their hearts.

Today I’m proud of rising, roaming, and rambling slowly, staving off burnout. The cool sunshine and quiet streets helped!

Today I’m grateful for a three day weekend of rest, play, and creativity, and Tuesday back that was calm, despite the chaos. Here’s to a Wednesday that is full but gentle.

Today I'm proud to be a featured by GitHub as a maintainer in academia! There's a lot of unglamorous work in keeping community-engaged defunded research healthy and I'm grateful for all GitHub does to make it possible. https://maintainermonth.github.com/academia/wordplay-maintainer-spotlight https://wordplay.dev #maintainermonth

Today I’m proud of the amazing Rotem Landesman for defending her dissertation, “Supporting Teens’ Everyday Ethical Thinking About GenAI”! I co-advise Rotem with Katie Davis, and it’s been a joy to see her build community with youth, while understanding how to cultivate their learning and integrity.

Today I’m proud of the students across computing and information at UW. You lead with your hearts and your minds in equal measure, and you make me hopeful for our country’s future. Don’t ever stop dreaming and learning!

Today I’m grateful for the unsung heroes of peer review. I see you ACM TOCE editorial board. You chase down reviewers, write thoughtful evaluations, help shepherd work to excellence. Thank you for your service; it makes being an Editor a joy, even amidst crisis and change.

SIGCSE TS posted a recording of my recent keynote, "Love, Learning, and Computing Education". If you haven't seen it, I hope this live version is a helpful guide for navigating this era of hate, at least in our little world of computing education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVrnZh_w-hY

Today I'm grateful for the Amtrak Cascades, taking me back north from Portland to Seattle late this evening. It's janky, wobbly, slow, unreliable, and far from world class, but it still connects me to family across Oregon and Washington, faster, cheaper, and more safely than a car. Choo choo!

Today I’m grateful for the beautiful 67° F sunny day and long ambling walk from the train to volunteer. People were out, the pets were frolicking, and my beats were on point.

Today I'm grateful to work with an excellent team of faculty and staff leaders at the University of Washington Information School. These are not easy times to be leaders with the U.S. government regularly attacking, threatening, and defunding higher education, but they're so much easier with great colleagues.

I spent a few days in Minneapolis, talking to academics, queer folk, and finding cozy corners in the aftermath of the ICE invasion. Here's a quick trip report, for the curious: https://medium.com/bits-and-behavior/a-day-at-the-university-of-minnesota-dfb782352fb1

Today I’m grateful for spring break, even if it’s only a week, and even if I have to work during it. The change of pace and the transition to spring always bring me a kind of existential hope, even amidst the horrors of our times 🌧️🌤️☀️.

Today was a little bit of everything, and so I’m proud, excited, angry, ashamed, overwhelmed, inspired. These are not good times in this country, but I’m glad to be around people who can act, even as we are numb, burned out, and disoriented.

Today I'm proud of all the little things I do that add up to a lot! I made a little "latest" page on my website to make that more visible, showing everything I've done in a year, such as writing, travel, talks, advising, and impact in the world. https://faculty.washington.edu/ajko/latest

Today I’m grateful for the 5th cohort of STEP CS, our pre-service teacher education pathway! I’m excited to spend the quarter learning and teaching with our excellent group of 9, sorting through CS, equity, and justice (and yes, AI).

Today I am proud of the amazing Adrienne Gifford, middle school CS teacher extraordinaire; for submitting her first research paper last week! She’s been an amazing teacher partner, centering youth visions while also advancing knowledge. Thanks to NSF for supporting her participation.

My favorite shot from the No Kings community organizing at Seattle center today: Trump babies, musk nazis, a general strike table, and in the background, thousands of people connecting, planning, plotting, and resisting.

Today is Husky Giving Day, and I’m proud to support the Information School’s Next Gen Faculty Fellowship in Information Science. What makes the School so special is its faculty: thoughtful teachers, researchers, and mentors who show up every day for students and for one another. If you’d like to support that work, here is my link: https://together.uw.edu/i/hgd/campaign/2026-information-school-husky-giving-day/ZIIxKE6PCE6nnGGfYO5Qgw?appeal=APL-22788

Today im proud of my amazing daughter and her commitment to being an outstanding special ed teacher. She deserves better than this country’s federal cuts have to offer right now, and so do the kids in her class.

Today I’m grateful for the berries of the Pacific Northwest. They make a great shrub, and a wonderful treat! There are so many things broken in this world, but the humble marionberry is perfect.

Today I’m heartened by two essential organizations, Lambert House, which is throwing tonight’s Pink Prom for queer youth, and Whole Washington, which is fighting for universal health care in WA, with the support of Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson.

Today I’m excited about our 30 new https://wordplay.dev contributors, learning how to self-direct open source contributions to design, development, localization, research, verification, and more! It’s not easy to scale alone, but we’ll definitely do it together.

Today I’m so excited about the cross lake connection, bringing together the east and west Seattle metro area, increasing frequencies, and opening transit to new communities in the south sound! Two decades of advocacy, engineering research, federal support, and taxpayer support are finally realized.

Tonight I’m grateful for Rick Steves and Shelley Bryan for their anti-fascist call for solidarity, hope, love, and action, as traveler and bishop.

Tonight I’m grateful for the amazing St. Vincent for her transfixing show at the Arlene Schnitzer concert hall in Portland. She was somehow engrossing, hilarious, irreverent, and more, all while transforming her music into jazz, in the spirit of the Portland jazz Festival. Incredible!

Today I’m grateful for being part of such a vibrant community of Information School scholars! Our breadth is astounding, deep, impactful, and led by so many wonderful humans. This was tonight’s Research Fair.

Today I'm grateful for a quiet Friday afternoon, made possible by my wonderful PhD students precrastinating the ICER due date. I spent it addressing GenAI in Critically Conscious Computing, I wrote a little seed grant, I cleaned up a dozen messes. It's a clean slate, which means a weekend of rest.

Today I’m grateful for the students on our student leadership council for speaking truth to power on behalf of their peers. In always eager to hear about their experiences and needs, even when we struggle to meet them.

Today I’m grateful for the UW Q center for creating spaces of care, calm, and community, even amidst a storm. It was a beautiful day for a pizza bake on the farm!

Today I am grateful for the 15 minute lunch break in my marathon of meetings from 8am to 5pm :P

I’m in Barcelona with DeAnn, and we just barely made it after a close connection after mechanical issues in Seattle. Thanks Muna from Pearson airport for getting us our boarding passes, escorting us to security, and holding the plane. We very much appreciate it!

Tonight I’m grateful for the delightful Moisture Festival, Seattle’s annual variety arts show each spring! It’s simply wonderful and all smiles. https://moisturefestival.org/ Eleven more shows through April 12th!

Today I'm grateful for my uncle Dan, who passed yesterday after 7 years fighting prostate cancer. He was endlessly homophobic, transphobic, and orthodox in his evangelicalism, but he was always willing to debate in good faith about our differences on what it means to love. May he rest in peace.

On July 1st, all trans Idahoans who need to pee will be forced to choose between risking violence or life in prison. Friends, come to WA, we will find you refuge, while fascist ID revels in its hate https://open.substack.com/pub/transitics/p/trans-people-are-a-myth-idaho-republicans?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Another day, another bundle of bad news for the kids. Forced outings in CA schools, mental health bans in TX. I’m grateful for all the teams and communities fighting to protect kids’ privacy and wellness, but amidst the backdrop of pointless war, it was a heavy day.

@andresmh@hci.social @pg@hci.social that’s a nice sweet spot! Does that include an exam week?