Experience

Work Experience:

Civic Media Fellow at Annenberg Innovation Lab at University of Southern California. 2021-2022.
Visiting Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Software Systems. 2021.
Advisor, Decoding Stigma. 2020 – present.
Co-Founder, Hacking//Hustling. 2018 – present.
Community Organizer, Survivors Against SESTA. 2018 – 2019.
Director of Communications, AltSex Conference. 2015 – 2018.
Researcher and Care Coordinator, Persist Health Project, 2013 – 2016.

Honors, Awards, Education:

Public Knowledge 20/20 Visionaries Award – Future Tech Policy Leader. 2021.
Recipient of the Barlow Award from EFF’s Pioneer Ceremony. Fall 2020.
Grant Recipient: $125k from the Open Society Foundation for Hacking//Hustling. Summer 2019.
MPH in Public Health
BA in Psychology
BFA in Photography

Events Organized:

The Coding of Risk: Financial Discrimination From Sex Work to Sanctions. Rights Con. Summer 2021
Trains, Texts and Tits: Sex work, Technology and Movement. Hacking//Hustling 4-part curriculum. Spring 2021.
Informal, Criminalized, Precarious: Sex Workers Organizing Against Barriers: Sex, Tech, and the Internet. Cornell, BKC, H2, UNC 7-part conference. Spring 2021
Sex Work Village at the Internet Freedom Festival. (Postponed due to COVID)
Sex, Tech and the Internet: Gentrification, Barriers and Design Justice. Harvard Law, Cornell Law, and Hacking//Hustling.
Fighting Surveillance Tech with Trademark Transparency. with Amanda Levendowski and Kendra Albert, Hacking//Hustling and Decoding Stigma. Fall 2020.
Legal Literacy Training: Surveillance and Sex Work. Hacking//Hustling. Summer 2020.
Digital Literacy Training: 3-Part Series. Hacking//Hustling. Summer 2020.
Memes, Social Media and Protest. Hacking//Hustling and Women of Sex Tech. Summer 2020.
WTF is EARNIT?, Hacking//Hustling. Winter 2020.
Big Tech is Watching: Surveillance on the Street and Online. KINKOUT: Spaces, MoMA PS1. Winter 2020.
A Platform for Sex Workers in a Post-SESTA World. Organized in collaboration with Melissa Gira Grant, Eyebeam, t4tech, and Ingrid Burrington. Fall 2018.
Whoretopia Future Lab: Beyond Decriminalization. Writing workshop series with Tina Horn. Summer 2018.

Publications and Written Work:

Deplatforming: A Roundtable Conversation. Porn Studies. Tarleton Gillespie, Danielle Blunt, Sinnamon Love, Stefanie Dugay, Clarissa Smith. Fall 2021.
Disabled Sex Workers’ Fight for Digital Rights and Platform Accessibility. Special Issue on Disability and Sex Work in Disability Studies Quarterly, volume 42.3 (slated for publication Summer 2022).
Automating Whorephobia: Sex, Technology and the Violence of Deplatforming. Porn Studies. Danielle Blunt and Zahra Stardust. Fall 2021.
FOSTA in a Legal Context. Co-author. Columbia Law Review. Spring 2021.
Technologies for Liberation: Toward Abolitionist Futures, Astraea Lesbian Foundation. Winter 2020.
Posting Into the Void: The Impact of Shadowbanning on Sex Workers and Activists. Lead researcher, Hacking//Hustling. Fall 2020.
International Whores Day Zine, produced and published by Kink Out Productions, contributing writer. Winner of Broken Pencil Magazine’s best political zine and in MoMA PS1’s permanent collection. Summer 2020.
Erased: The Impact of FOSTA-SESTA and the Removal of Backpage Research Summary. Technology, Anti-Trafficking, and Speculative Futures, Anti-Trafficking Review Special Issue Release. Spring 2020.
Account Shutdown Harm Reduction Guide. Hacking//Hustling for Harvard Conference. Fall 2019.
Online Worker Safety: Hazards and Cautions: A Practical Harm Reduction Guide on Why and How Sex Workers Can Protect Ourselves at Work. Hacking//Hustling for Eyebeam. Spring 2018.
The Health Care Hustle. Tits and Sass: Service Journalism by and for Sex Workers. Spring 2015.

Talks and Panels:

Invited Talk: Hacking//Hustling and Sex Worker Advocacy Online. Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Spring 2021
Panelist: Deplatforming Sex, Northumbria University, UK, With Tarleton Gillepsie, Fall 2021
Panelist: Perspectives on Encryption and Child Safety. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Fall 2021.
Invited Talk: Doxxing. Digital Defense Fund. Summer 2021
Invited Talk: Whorephobia in Platforms: FOSTA-SESTA and Online Censorship. Current Topics in Technology Platform Policy. Stanford Internet Observatory. Summer 2021.
Workshop: Digital Dangers for Pregnant People, Ford Foundations, Panel, Spring 2021.
Contributor: Data and Society Workshop Hustle Economy Conference -‘High Risk’ Hustling: Payment Processors, Sexual Proxies and Discrimination by Design, Spring 2021.
Guest Lecturer: in our new seminar series, “Current Topics in Technology Platform Policy. Stanford Observatory Prep. Spring 2021
Invited Talk: Hacking//Hustling and Sex Worker Advocacy Online. Harvard Kennedy School with Kendra Albert, Spring 2021.
Panelist: Body of Workers a collaboration between Veil Machine and Kink Out at the From the Rupture: Ideas & Actions for the Future festival by Eyebeam. Winter 2020.
Invited Talk: The Power of Platforms: Platform Literacy and Content Moderation, Winter 2020.
Invited Talk: State of the Industry, InterNEXT Adult Industry Panel. Winter 2020.
Invited Talk: Reclaiming Our Bodies, Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings Virtual Retreat, Winter 2020.
Invited Talk: Sex Work Online: Censorship and Exploitation at Digital Sex Workers’ Festival for International Committee on the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe (ICRSE). Winter 2020.
Guest Lecturer: Feminist Political Theory: Payment Processors and Online Sex Work at Bard University. Fall 2020.
Invited Talk: IFF Community Knowledge Share: Coffee Talk with Danielle Blunt. Internet Freedom Festival. Summer 2020
Panelist: Movement Lawyering: Challenging Narratives Around Online Laws Pertaining to Sex Work. The Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs, The Cyberlaw clinic and Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Summer 2020.
Panelist: Communications Decency Act Section 230 and the Future of Online Speech, Case Western Reserve University. Summer 2020.
Invited Talk: Drug User Organizing call on EARN IT, Urban Survivors Union.
Panelist: Summer 2020: Memes, Social Media and Protest, Hacking//Hustling and Women of Sex Tech, Organizer and Speaker. Summer 2020.
Invited Talk: Spring 2020: CDA 230 and The EARN IT Act, Women of Sex Tech Conference.
Invited Talk: Spring 2020: FOSTA-SESTA and EARN IT: What Mental Health Professionals Need to Know, The AltSex Conference.
Invited Talk: Sex Work in Covid-19, Harm Reduction Coalition. Spring 2020.
Invited Talk: Networked Bodies of Resistance. NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program. Tech 4 Social Good Day. Moderated by Gabriella Garcia. Winter 2019.
Guest Lecturer: Introductory Sociology on Social Deviance and Sex Work, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Winter 2019.
Invited Talk: Initial Findings on the Impact of FOSTA-SESTA and the Removal of Backpage. Sex Workers, Surveillance & Tech Convening, Harvard Law School. Fall 2019.
Invited Talk: From Spreading Hate on 8chan to the Safety of Sex Workers. Speaker at Lesbians Who Tech. Fall 2019.
Invited Talk: Hidden in Plain Sight: Propaganda, Surveillance, and the 21st Century Vilification of Sex Worker. Lecture at Bard College with Melissa Gira Grant. Spring 2019.
Guest Lecturer: Sex Work and Sexual Health at NYU. Dulcinea Pitagora. Spring 2019.
Presenter: Health Equity in the Age of Shadowbanning and SESTA: How Obfuscated Infrastructure and Systems of Content Moderation Harm Whores and Everyone. Internet Connection Panel at Theorizing the Web. Moderated by Brandon Arroyo. Spring 2019.
Presenter: Dystopia Now: Erasing the Internet by Erasing Sex Workers. Presentation with Melissa Gira Grant at Data & Society’s Future Perfect conference organized by Ingrid Burrington. Summer 2018.
Invited Talk: Negotiating Boundaries: Psychology Meets Sex Work. AltSex Conference. Spring 2018.
Invited Talk: Building Safer Spaces: Perspectives from Sex Workers. KINKOUT Sex Work Panel. Euridice Gallery. Winter 2018:

Media Coverage:

Would You Date a Robot? Flash Forward Podcast. Rose Eveleth. 2021
OnlyFans Isn’t Just Porn 😉. New York Times. Charlotte Shane. 2021.
Sex Work: How to Survive the Shadowban. Polina Bachlakova. Bedside Productions. 2021.
Silicon Values: The Future of Free Speech Under Surveillance Capitalism, Jillian C. York, 2021
Rashida Jones’s Battle With Sex Workers Reveals a New Era of Internet Censorship, Jo Livingston, The New Republic, January 19, 2021.
“We’ve Always Taken Care Of Each Other”: How Sex Workers Are Coping During COVID-19, Griffin Wynne, Bustle, 2021.
Posting Into The Void, Salty. 2021
FOSTA-SESTA was supposed to thwart sex trafficking. Instead, it’s sparked a movement, Liz Tung, NPR, The Pulse, 2020
Is social media silencing Black Lives Matter? Sex worker collective seeks answers, Ana Valens, DailyDot, June 22, 2020.
What is ProtonMail, and should you use it?, Ana Valens, DailyDot, June 10, 2020
Anonymous user uploads four terabytes of private videos from only fans. Michael Thomsen, DailyMail UK, February 2020.
SESTA-FOSTA is ‘detrimental’ to sex workers’ safety, study confirms, January 24, 2020. Ana Valens. Daily Dot.
Sex Workers Are at the Forefront of the Fight Against Mass Surveillance and Big Tech. Erin Taylor. The Observer. 2019.
Tough Talks: Propaganda, Surveillance, and the 21st-Century Vilification of Sex Workers. Hannah Ardent Center. Charlotte Albert, 2019.
Sex Workers of the World United, Scott Stern, American Scholar. June 3, 2019.
Porn Stars Vs. Instagram: Inside The Battle To Remain On The Platform. Otilla Steadman, BuzzFeedNews. October 18, 2019.
Tough Talks: Propaganda, Surveillance, and the 21st-Century Vilification of Sex Workers. Hannah Ardent Center. Charlotte Albert, 2019.
Episode 32: Danielle Blunt On Health Care Access for Sex Workers, Peepshow Podcast, 2019.
Sex Workers of the World United. Scott Stern, American Scholar. 2019.
Sex Workers Fight Back Against a Dangerous Law by Stepping Into the Spotlight, Melanie Ehrenkranz. Gizmodo. June 4, 2018.
Tumblr’s Porn Ban Further Stigmatizes And Alienates Sex Workers Online. Melanie Ehrenkranz, Gizmodo. 2018.
Kinky Yoga: Interrobang. Why Are People Into That? Tina Horn. Fall 2018.
Danielle Blunt On Health Care Access for Sex Workers. The Peepshow Podcast. Fall 2018.
Hacking//Hustling: A Sex Worker Led Tech Conference. The Peepshow Podcast. Fall 2018.
The Web-Hosting Service for Sex Workers, by Sex Workers, Against SESTA/FOSTA.Arvind Dilawar. The Nation, August 2018

Formal Education:

CUNY School of Public Health, MS in Public Health, Summer 2018, GPA: 3.8
SUNY New Paltz, BS in Psychology and BFA in Photography, GPA: 3.6

Looking to expand your sex worker competency?

Book Me

Watch Me Speak:

Ariel Wolf and Blunt present their findings from Hacking//Hustling’s 2020 research at Harvard.

A Hacking//Hustling panel discussion featuring presentations from sex workers and sex worker rights advocates. We discuss censorship, discrimination, and policing in the wake of SESTA.

A critique of the portrayal of BDSM and D/s relationships in Netflix’s Bonding.

Andrea Glik, LMSW and Blunt, MPH discuss the healing potential of BDSM.

An interdisciplinary conversation with professional dominatrix, Blunt and LMSW, Avigail.

Future Perfect is an annual workshop and conference dedicated to different approaches to understanding, living in, and challenging dominant narratives of speculative fiction in a time where powerful actors in technology and politics treat the future like a foregone conclusion.