An Indigenous-led home for critical and creative research on the politics of technoscience.

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LABS

Since 2007, the Technoscience Research Unit at the University of Toronto has been the institutional Indigenous-led home for many scholars researching within the fields of science, technology and environment. Through research projects, micro-laboratories, and working groups, we support and foster Indigenous, feminist, queer, environmental, anti-racist and anti-colonial methodologies for studying the history and politics of technoscience. Our research activities – clustered together in laboratories – are organized according to three priority areas: Environmental Data Justice; Indigenous Science, Technology & Environment Studies; and Indigenous Science and Ethical Substance. Learn more about our research areas and activities below.

  • The Environmental Data Justice Lab is an Indigenous lab that focuses on the relationships between data, pollution, and colonialism with a focus on Canada’s Chemical Valley, where 40% of Canada’s Petrochemicals are refined, and which is on the territory of Aamjiwnaang First Nation. The lab is dedicated to community-based and led research, and is co-led by M Murphy (Red River Metis) and Vanessa Gray (Aamjiwnaang First Nation). The lab includes students, faculty, and community researchers.

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  • Indigenous contributions to science, technology, and environmental studies (STES) signal a new era of research collaboration. Fields as distinct as chemistry, AI, and pharmacy now seek to collaborate with Indigenous scholars. At the same time, Indigenous scholars are taking the lead in developing their own methods of Indigenous research suited to data and computationally driven research conditions, current and future technologies, and urgent environmental needs while transforming policies, protocols, and practices that support self-determination. The Technoscience Research Unit is committed to advancing the research in the field of Indigenous Science, Technology, and Environmental Studies (ISTES) at the University of Toronto and globally.

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  • The ISES Lab brings Indigenous STS and community-based methods to transform material discovery, our understanding of chemical risk, and and frameworks of ethical substance. We strive to ensure the ethical integration of Indigenous knowledges and values into research design for chemistry, chemical management, and materials discovery.

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RECENT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Open Positions

We are currently accepting applications for the below positions. As an Indigenous-led lab, we strive to create a decolonized and feminist research community.

  • Application deadline: Dec. 19, 2025

    Join a large, Indigenous-led community-research based, multi-institutional project on “Transforming Chemical Risk Management with Indigenous Expertise.”

    Candidates with experience working in organizations or communities, in addition to candidates with master’s degrees, are welcome to apply!

    APPLY HERE

  • Date Posted: Dec. 12, 2025

    Application Deadline: January 20, 2026

    Short summary: This postdoctoral position will research how Indigenous research practices can lead in the research design of new methods and tools for the assessment of pollution and substances. As chemical risk management turns away from animal testing and as current chemical management fails to protect communities, there is an opportunity to design new methods accountable to, by and for, Indigenous communities for the evaluation of pollutants.

    This fellowship is located at theTRU’s Indigenous Science and Ethical Substance Lab (ISES) and part of the NFRF-Transformation project Transforming Chemical Risk Management with Indigenous Expertise.

    For full description, qualifications, role requirements, and instructions on how to apply, please click “View Application”.

  • Date Posted: Dec. 12, 2025

    Application Deadline: January 20, 2026

    Short summary: This postdoctoral position will research the urgent question of militarization and weaponization of self-driving labs and AI tools for rapidly creating new chemicals. As self driving lab technologies seek to “democratize” who can build and access the rapid creation of novel substances, they also create the conditions for rapid weapon creation and new challenges for the International Convention on Chemical Weapons.

    This fellowship is located in the TRU’s Indigenous Science and Ethical Substance Lab (ISES) and is connected to a partnership with the Acceleration Consortium’s Self-Driving Labs for Molecular and Materials Discovery’s Canada First Research Excellence Fund project.

    For full description, qualifications, role requirements, and instructions on how to apply, please click “View Application”.

PRESS RELEASES AND MEDIA

The TRU has long provided a home at the University of Toronto for scholars working through the history and politics of technoscience.