2025-26 Technoscience Salon
Ethical Grounds
Across 2025-2026, the TRU gathered Indigenous scholars, community members, and students to think together about what it means to do science, technology, and environmental research differently. From Soil and More to Indigenous AI, to radical imaginings of Scientific Ethics, we dived into how Indigenous research is:
developing research methods suited to data and computationally-driven contexts
shifting environmental regulations and needs, and transforming scientific policies, protocols, and practice
Jessica Kolopenuk and Rick W. A. Smith :: Ethical Grounds
Wednesday, January 14, 2026
4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Dr. Jessica Kolopenuk (Ininiw/Cree, Peguis First Nation) is an Associate Professor and the Alberta Health Services Research Chair in Indigenous Health at the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. Her research and policy leadership advance Indigenous governance, data sovereignty, and self-determination in science, health, and genomics. Drawing on critical Indigenous theory, her work interrogates how power operates through scientific and health research, while creating pathways for Indigenous peoples to lead and transform these fields. Dr. Kolopenuk co-founded the Indigenous Science, Technology, and Society (Indigenous STS) research and training program and the Summer internship for INdigenous peoples in Genomics Canada (SING Canada)
Ricky W. A. Smith is a biocultural anthropologist working at the intersections of genomics and Science and Technology Studies (STS). He completed his Ph.D. in 2017 at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining the faculty at Mason, he completed a three year postdoctoral fellowship with the Neukom Institute for Computational Science and the Department of Anthropology at Dartmouth College. In addition to working within the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Mason, he is affiliated with the Women and Gender Studies program and is the director of the Science and Society Research Hub within the Center for Social Science Research.
Candis Callison :: Ethical Grounds
Thursday, March 12, 2026
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Dr. Candis Callison (Tałtan) is the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous journalism, media, and public discourse, and a Professor jointly appointed in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, and the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies. She is also an associate faculty in the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media. Her research and teaching are focused on changes to media practices, the rise and persistence of Indigenous journalism on digital platforms, journalism ethics, the role of Indigenous and environment-focused social movements in public discourse, and understanding how climate change becomes meaningful for diverse publics.
She is the author of How Climate Change Comes to Matter: The Communal Life of Facts, and the co-author of Reckoning: Journalism’s Limits and Possibilities. Candis is a member of the Tāłtān Nation, and a regular contributor to the podcast, Media Indigena.
This event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Indigenous Studies.
Kyle Whyte :: Ethical Grounds
Thursday, March 19, 2026
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Dr. Kyle Whyte (Citizen Potawatomi) is the George Willis Pack Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability and University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor at the University of Michigan. On campus, Kyle teaches in and coordinates the School’s environmental justice graduate specialization. He is founding Faculty Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment, Principal Investigator of the Environmental Justice + Humanities Hub, co-Principal Investigator of the Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters, Faculty Associate of Native American Studies, Principal Investigator of the Secretariat for the Pathways Alliance for Change and Transformation, STRIDE Committee member, affiliate Professor of Philosophy, and Senior Fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows.
Kyle’s research on environmental justice centers moral and political issues that Indigenous peoples are addressing in the areas of climate change, conservation, and cooperative relationships with science institutions. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. His publications appear in journals such as Climatic Change, Weather, Climate & Society, Science, Daedalus, WIREs Climate Change, Environment & Planning E, and Sustainability Science.
This event is co-sponsored by the Centre for Indigenous Studies.
Past Salons
