WELCOME

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communications at York University, where I am also affiliated with two graduate programs: Communication & Culture, and Science and Technology Studies Program. Internationally, I have links to the Center for Social Studies of the Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.  My research interest is in ethnographies of the practices of development and use of emergent (and contested) sciences and technologies that posit the body at the interface of biology and information. In my work I approach these “sites” from both theoretical and material perspectives, that is, I am interested not in conducting ethnographies of the actual practices thorough which they are produced and how these speak to larger theoretical bodies, but also in the technologies themselves. Technoscience is thus not only a site for my research, but also an actor in it. In particular I am interested in examining what kinds of bodies and agencies, as well as understandings of science and technology are implicated, reified and transformed within and through these initiatives. My inquiries are guided by two questions: What visions and assumptions—about embodiment, agency, technoscience, and their relationships—are being mobilized to justify and drive the development of emergent technologies? And, how are these experienced and enacted by users? I am also increasingly interested in science policy, that is, on the politics of technoscientific management and how those affect the kinds of science that are being funded and produced.  Anchoring my work on science and technology studies, feminist technoscience and cyborg anthropology, my research has so far focused on wearable computers and nanotechnology. My doctoral dissertation (University of Toronto, 2005) critically examined the multiple meanings of physical and cognitive augmentation through wearable computers, from the visionary discourses of developers to the conflicted experience of implementation on the ground. (If you’d like a copy of the dissertation please email me.) I subsequently had a 3 year position as a Research Associate at Cornell University with the Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF) and the Department of Science and Technology Studies. While at Cornell I was the “in-house” social scientist at CNF, and collaborated with practitioners to examine the social and ethical dimensions of nanotechnology research and development. My latest research project is in nanomedicine.  In general I am interested in supervising MA or Ph.D. students who use science and technology studies, feminist technoscience, actor-network theory or cyborg anthropology approaches to critically examine the practices of technological development and use, particularly in regards to information and communication technologies, emergent technosciences, and cyborgs and other augmented bodies (such as robotics, nano, wearable computing, artificial intelligence, to name a few). If you are thinking of pursuing graduate studies and would like to tell me more about your research and/or know more about my own don't hesitate to drop me a line. Keywords: cyborg anthropology, human-computer interaction, feminist technoscience, emergent technologies, embodiment, identity and agency.

Beyond work (old stuff...)

Interaccess
I was on the advisory board of Interaccess, a Toronto electronic media arts center.

Privacy Lecture Series
Organization of the Privacy Lecture Series from 2000 to 2002. On the website you can find the archive of the series, information on upcoming events plus daily headlines on privacy.

The Privacy Lecture Series was sponsored by the Information Policy Research Program (IPRP) of the Faculty of Information Studies and by the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) of the University of Toronto

Nettime-lat
I am also involved in the organization of a 'Latin' email list, that is, one that functions primarily in Portuguese and Spanish. The goal is to create a space for discussion of issues related to technology, society and culture, in a language other than English. In this list we discuss international issues but we do so from a Latin perspective.



The goal of this page is to allow others to access my research and writing and to obtain feedback from them. Comments, suggestions or questions are much appreciated.

Last updated on January 2009