Delve into our research

The TRU’s collection of publications include materials that come out of our projects, as well as publications that are authored and coauthored by TRU members (past and present) that align with our research areas and values.

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS

Cover page of a report titled 'Data Protocol' with date January 2026. The design includes a large stylized tree pattern on the left and a circular section on the right containing photographs of a conference room, a wooden drawer with ventilation holes, and a box of assorted beads.

The TRU’s Data Protocol

Yanchapaxi, M. F., & Wemigwans, J., Technoscience Research Unit. Data Protocol (Toronto: Technoscience Research Unit, 2026)

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Cover of a book titled "Fear of a White Planet" with a textured black background. Additional text includes "More Worlds Collective" and authors' names Joseph Masco, Tim Choy, Jake Kosek, and M. Murphy.

Fear of a dead white planet

More Worlds Collective, Masco, J., Choy, T., Jake, & Murphy, M. (2025). Fear of a dead white planet. Duke University Press.

Graphic with the text 'Science, Technology, & Human Values' and geometric shapes with the date July 2025.

Indigenous Environmental Data Justice: Confronting Colonial Data and Activating Indigenous Sovereignty

Yanchapaxi, María Fernanda, and M. Murphy. “Indigenous Environmental Data Justice: Confronting Colonial Data and Activating Indigenous Sovereignty.” Science, Technology, & Human Values (2025). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01622439251343837

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Colorful flower with pink, blue, orange, yellow, green, and purple petals and red lips in the center, surrounded by various doodles including hands with red nail polish, a clock, money bags, hearts, stars, and sketches of faces and objects.

It’s a Mixture of Emotions”: Nail Technicians’ Visual Storytelling of Work and Health

Shadaan, Reena. ““It’s a Mixture of Emotions”: Nail Technicians’ Visual Storytelling of Work and Health.” Qualitative Research in Medicine & Healthcare 9, no. 1 (2025): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qrmh.2025.100003

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A factory with smokestacks behind trees and bushes, with smoke rising from the chimneys.

Understanding Our Surroundings — Tanks

Gray, Beze, Joel Piche, Layla El‑Dakhakhni, and Vanessa Gray. “Understanding Our Surroundings — Tanks.” The Journal: Serving Sarnia‑Lambton, March 12, 2025. https://www.thesarniajournal.ca/opinion/opinion-opinion-understanding-our-surroundings-tanks-10364915.

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Close-up of a waterfront with weathered metal barriers, dry grass, and gravel at the shoreline, with rippling water in the background.

COMMUNITY VOICE: Suncors’ Crude Oil Spill on the Gchigami-Ziibii (St.Clair River)

Gray, Beze, Joel Piche, Layla El‑Dakhakhni, and Vanessa Gray. “Community Voice: Suncor’s Crude Oil Spill on the Gchigami‑Ziibii (St. Clair River).” The Journal: Serving Sarnia‑Lambton, April 25, 2025. https://www.thesarniajournal.ca/opinion/community-voice-suncors-crude-oil-spill-on-the-gchigami-ziibii-stclair-river-10563617

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Cover of a science magazine titled 'Environmental Science & Technology' with a colorful illustration of a human heart surrounded by molecules and scientific visuals.

Orienting the Sustainable Management of Chemicals and Waste toward Indigenous Knowledge

Ataria, James M., M. Murphy, Deborah McGregor, Susan Chiblow, Bradley J Moggridge, Daniel C. H Hikuroa, Louis A Tremblay, Gunilla Öberg, Virginia Baker, and Bryan W Brooks. “Orienting the Sustainable Management of Chemicals and Waste toward Indigenous Knowledge.” Environmental Science & Technology 57, no. 30 (2023): 10901–3.

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An illustration of a person with a feathered headdress and colorful clothing standing on a hill overlooking an industrial landscape with factories and cooling towers. The background features a colorful, abstract sky with swirling clouds and a pink sun, and a mix of natural and industrial elements.

Data Colonialism in Canada’s Chemical Valley

Gray, Vanessa, Beze Gray, Fernanda Yanchapaxi, Kristen Bos, and M Murphy.
Special Report published with The Yellowhead Institute, September 2023.

Download the Report

A collage of various photographs, including landscapes, people, food, and objects, with a sepia-tone filter over most images, on a white background with an orange border on the right side.

Seed Bead Inheritances and Other Toxicities*

Bos, Kristen. 2023. “Seed Bead Inheritances and Other Toxicities.” In Sketches on Everlasting Plastics, edited by Isabelle Kirkham-Lewitt and Joanna Joseph. Columbia Books on Architecture and the City.

*This piece was also displayed and circulated with original media from artist Claire Johnston (Red River Métis) at the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, May 20, 2023-November 26, 2023.

Cover of UnderCurrents journal showing a black and white photo of two women, a girl, and a dog on a porch with flowers.

Chemical Futures and Environmental Data Justice

M. Murphy. “Chemical Futures and Environmental Data Justice.” UnderCurrents: Journal of Critical Environmental Studies, no. 21 (2022): 45-48.

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Various small plastic and rubber fragments, including a yellow toy banana, a black circular object, and a white plastic straw, scattered on a white background.

Finding a Good Starting Place: An Interview with Scholars in the CLEAR Lab

Yanchapaxi, María Fernanda, Max Liboiron, Katherine Crocker, Deondre Smiles, and Eve Tuck. 2022. “Finding a Good Starting Place: An Interview with Scholars in the CLEAR Lab.” Curriculum Inquiry 52 (2): 162–70.

Image courtesy of the CLEAR Lab Instagram

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Cover of a journal titled "CATAlyST: feminism, theory, technoscience" with an art installation of interconnected, irregular copper pipes with glass and resin objects inside and hanging from it.

EDC’s as Industrial Chemicals and Settler Colonial Structures: Towards a Decolonial Feminist Approach

Shadaan, Reena, and M. Murphy. “EDC’s as Industrial Chemicals and Settler Colonial Structures: Towards a Decolonial Feminist Approach.” Catalyst (San Diego, Calif.) 6, no. 1 (2020).

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RECOMMENDED READINGS

Expand the lists below for recommended readings in the areas of Environmental Data Justice, Chemicals & Ethical Substance, and Indigenous Science Technology & Environment. Materials authored by TRU Lab members (past and present) are bolded, while other recommended texts are from Indigenous scholars and communities we collaborate with or whose work we admire. If you don’t have access to any of these texts, contact us or the lead author for a copy.

Close-up of a speaker cone with a damaged or torn surround.

RESEARCH

Collaborations

The Technoscience Research Unit is rooted in collaborative practices with the intention of supporting and cultivating different forms of shared knowledge and experiences. At the heart of our collaborations is our commitment to decolonializing, justice-oriented, and feminist research. 

Cross-section of a brown tree trunk showing growth rings.

Acceleration Consortium
(2024 - present)

The TRU is the social science lab of the Acceleration Consortium (AC), which is leading a transformative shift to accelerate materials discovery informed by ethics, economics, and Indigenous science and technology studies. To learn more about our collaboration, visit the Indigenous Science & Ethical Substance page on our website.

Illustration of a circular wooden tree cross-section with visible growth rings and bark edges on a black background.

IndigeLab Network
(2023 - present)

The IndigeLab Network focuses on how Indigenous-led research collectives work and make change. We support one another in the usually behind-the-scenes knowledges and methods of bringing Indigenous methodologies and theories of change into the social worlds of labs, studios, portfolios, centers, and other research collectives, especially when they are based in colonial institutions. The IndigeLab Network (IN) currently includes 19 Indigenous women and gender minority researchers who lead unique research collectives that make room for Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being in the academy. To learn more, visit the IndigeLab website.

A top-down view of a pizza with various toppings on a black background.

Knowledge Media and Design Institute (KMDI)
(2017 - 2024)

From 2017 to 2024, the TRU was part of the Semaphore Research Cluster and Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI), a multidisciplinary research institute based out of the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. The KMDI is dedicated to exploring the complex relationships between information, technology and society, with the aim of advancing social justice through human-centered design.

A black background with a brown, abstract, organic-looking shape resembling a tree or coral.

Catalyst Journal
(2015 - present)

Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, and Technoscience is a peer-reviewed journal that serves the expanding interdisciplinary field of feminist science and technology studies (STS) by supporting theoretically inventive and methodologically creative scholarship incorporating approaches from critical public health, disability studies, sci-art, technology and digital media studies, history and philosophy of science and medicine, and more. M. Murphy is a founding member and ongoing member of the editorial collective for the journal, which is housed by the University of Toronto Library open source journal project.  From 2017-2019, the TRU provided funding support for Catalyst operations with generous support from the Faculty of Information and Women and Gender Studies.

JOURNAL

Text reading 'CATAILY' with smaller text below that says 'feminism, theory, technoscience'.

The TRU is proud to be part of the distributed editorship collective caring for Catalyst, an online and open journal for feminist STS.

Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, and Technoscience serves the expanding interdisciplinary field of feminist science and technology studies (STS) by supporting theoretically inventive and methodologically creative scholarship incorporating approaches from critical public health, disability studies, sci-art, technology and digital media studies, history and philosophy of science and medicine, and more.

Catalyst publishes peer-reviewed critically and theoretically engaged feminist STS scholarship that reroutes the gendered, queer, raced, colonial, militarized, and political economic beings and doings of technoscience. Its mission is to support innovation in feminist STS and related areas of study, as well as to provide a venue for the publishing of activist feminist and critical theory concerning matters of science, technology, information, medicine, media, and more.

A contribution that distinguishes Catalyst from other science studies journals is its emphasis on building, expanding, and applying theoretical insights from across the arts and humanities, the social sciences, and scientific practice. Featuring both empirical and hermeneutic essays and projects anchored in theory, Catalyst offers a place to collectively work across disciplines on gendered subjectivities and the uneven materializations of power across technoscientific assemblages of sex, race, nation, class, and ability.

The journal is designed to serve as a bridge linking new and more familiar sites of feminist technoscience study and practice, including STS programs at institutions such as York University and the University of California at San Diego, as well as multiple working groups and open forums such as the Catalyst Lab at UCSD, the University of Toronto’s Technoscience Research Unit, the international FemTechNet, and Life (Un)Ltd., a research initiative of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women (see Affiliations for details).

Cover of a journal titled "CATAList" with the subtitle "feminism, theory, technoscience." The cover features a close-up of a honeycomb with a bee on it and a distorted face visible behind the honeycomb.
Contemporary art installation featuring interconnected pink silicone tubes with embedded glass objects, arranged in a geometric, stair-like structure against a plain background.
Cover of Catalyst magazine featuring a silhouette of a woman with large African-American hair against a white background, with the magazine's title and issue details above.
Cover page of a publication titled 'CATA LYST: feminism, theory, technoscience' with abstract artwork featuring bold orange, purple, and blue shapes and lines. Includes information about a special section on Metaphors as Meaning & Method in Technoculture, edited by T.L. Cowan and Jas Rault, Volume 8, Number 2, Fall 2022, with a note on the artist Alex Cruse and that the image is courtesy of the artist.

TRU Project Archives

Two people on a boat leaning over a circular container, with one holding a bottle and the other holding a metallic bowl, during daytime.

2017-2023

Placing Science

Placing Science was a SSHRC-funded collaborative project about place-based decolonial practices for environmental science research. The project was based at theCivic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research (CLEAR)at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, directed by Max Liboiron.

Learn more about the project →

A chart in German showing the menstrual cycle length on a grid with symbols indicating cohabitation, ovulation, and menstruation entry, including specific pregnancy and birth dates.

2015-2018

Historicizing Reproduction

Historicizing Reproduction was a research project led by Martina Schluender in collaboration with M. Murphy about the 20th century as a central period when the “technoscience turn” in reproduction took place. The project was supported by an EU Marie Currie Postdoctoral Fellowship.

Learn more about the project →

Group of people working on laptops in a classroom or conference room with large windows and city view.

2016-2017

Environmental Data Archiving

Environmental Data Archiving was a project co-organized by TRU members Michelle Murphy, Matt Price , and Patrick Keilty to archive government environmental and climate data vulnerable to becoming less public accessible or lost in the transition to the new presidential administration.  This project was part of  EDGI and its Data Rescue work in  collaboration with the DataRefuge project at University of Pennsylvania and the Internet Archive.

Laboratory workspace with glass petri dishes, flasks, and containers filled with green plant specimens, some covered with aluminum foil, on a white perforated table.

2015-2018

The Politics of Evidence

The Politics of Evidence andOur Right to Know Collaboration Carla Hustak and Michelle Murphy of the TRU are working in collaboration with The Politics of Evidence Working Group, organized by Natasah Myers, on bringing greater attention the to the federal politics of knowledge making and ignorance in Canada. The TRU also has a representative on the organizing committee of the non-profit Our Right to Know, which is coordinating a national network of organizations concerned with the current politics of Canadian science and research.

A classroom with students sitting at desks, working on computers, and engaging in various activities. The room is brightly lit with large windows, and there are ceiling lights and hanging fixtures. The color tone is purple-pink due to a filter or lighting effect.

2017

Techniques of the Corporation

Techniques of the Corporation was a SSHRC funded project from 2016-2018 that critically examined the corporation in the same way that historians of science and STS scholars have approached science, colonialism, and militarism as complex sites for knowledge production, value-making, and technopolitics. This project was co-led by Kira Lussier, Bretton Fosbrook, Justin  Douglas and Michelle Murphy)

Learn more about the project →

Color wheel with concentric rainbow-colored segments arranged in a spiral pattern on a dark background.

2017

Sexy Data

Sexy Data was a SSHRC-funded project led by TRU member Patrick Keilty that examines the strategic choices made by technical staff within the vast and lucrative online pornography industry.

Learn more about the project →

Close-up of a green, plant tendril with small spikes, curling at the ends.

2011

Plant Encounters

The RaceSci Website was a scholarly forum and database that addressed a longstanding gap in resources for the history of race in science, medicine, and technology.

Learn more about the project →

Image with text titled 'History of Race in Science' overlaid on photos of hands in a handshake and a person clutching their head. Includes quotes about race, racism, and genetics.

1996-2006

RaceSci Website

The Plant Encounters Workshop, organized by Carla Hustak,  was  animated by an inquiry into interdisciplinary approaches to encountering plants as nonhuman others that problematize our ontologies, politics, methodologies, and narrative frameworks

Learn more about the project →