Natasha Myers

(PhD MIT 2007)
Assistant Professor
York University
Department of Anthropology,
& Science and Technology Studies

Research

As an anthropologist working in the field of science and technology, I examine the lively visual and performance cultures that thrive in contemporary life science laboratories and classrooms. I conduct my fieldwork among an interdisciplinary group of scientists who image, model, and simulate subvisible molecular realms through computer-intensive technologies. These researchers aim to elucidate the material substructure of living bodies, and I approach this field curious about how the work of modeling substances at the molecular scale is shaping how we make sense of life.

Getting inside of these questions has extended my interests beyond the constitution of scientific facts inside of laboratories. I want to understand how in making science, scientists themselves get made. Curious about how laboratories operate as spaces for producing scientists, I’m tracking how pedagogy and training shape forms of knowing in the practical cultures of technoscience. I am currently completing a manuscript on this topic entitled Molecular Embodiments: Modeling Proteins and Making Scientists in the Contemporary Biosciences. My recent and forthcoming publications can be found here.

With support from an Early Reearcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation and a SSHRC Research Development Initiative Grant, I have recently launched a new study on artists and scientists whose experimental inquiry turns around plant sensoria, movements, and temporalities. This project titled, "The Laboratory Lives of Plants and People: Artists, Scientists, and Botanical Experiments" aims to extend the genre of multispecies anthropology to include cultures and practices that revolve around plant lives and worlds.

In my teaching, I explore the intersections of race, gender and science, the craft of scientific practice, and the power of facts in social worlds. I co-organize Toronto's Technoscience Salon and am a Member of Council for the Society for Social Studies of Science.

Recent and Ongoing Activities and Events

Plant Studies Collaboratory :: Funded by an Early Researcher Award and a SSHRC Research Development Initiative Grant

The Politics of Care in Technoscience :: Situating Science SSHRC Funded Workshop, April 2012

Anthropology of the Senses :: New Undergraduate Course with Zulfikar Hirji (ANTH 3560, Fall 2011 and Fall/Winter 2012-13)

Technoscience Salon :: Extensions :: An interdisciplinary remix of science and technology studies

The META Lab :: Laboratory for Modes of Embodiment in Technoscience and Anthropology

York's New Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies

U50 Art Meets Science: A series of events bringing York artists and scientists into conversation and collaboration.

U50 Art Meets Science Plenary Lectures

Rendering Life Itself: New Graduate Course (FGS/STS 6101, Winter 2010)