Natasha Myers
Associate Professor
Convener, Politics of Evidence Working Group
Director, Plant Studies Collaboratory
Office: Vari Hall, 2032
Phone: (416) 736-2100 Ext: 22394
Email: nmyers@yorku.ca
Primary website: Website
Secondary website: Plant Studies Collaboratory
Media Requests Welcome
Leave of Absence
Not currently accepting new graduate students
Anthropology of art, science and ecology; anti-colonial, feminist science studies; anthropology of the senses; pedagogy and visualization; plants, ecologies, and more-than-human anthropology.
Natasha Myers is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at York University. Her ethnographic research examines forms of life in the contemporary arts and sciences. Her first book, Rendering Life Molecular (Duke University Press, 2015) is an ethnography of an interdisciplinary group of scientists who make living substance come to matter at the molecular scale. This book maps protein modeling techniques in the context of the ongoing molecularization of life in the biosciences. It explores how protein modelers’ multidimensional data forms are shifting the cusp of visibility, the contours of the biological imagination, and the nature of living substance. What, it asks, does life become in their hands? This book was the recipient of the 2016 Robert K. Merton Award from the Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association.
With support from an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Government and a SSHRC RDI Grant, she convened the Plant Studies Collaboratory in 2010 to serve as a node for collaborative interdisciplinary research on plant-based ecologies and economies. In new work, she is experimenting with ways to document the affective ecologies that take shape between plants and people, and among plants and their remarkably multi-species relations. One project looks at ways the phenomena of plant sensing and communication are galvanizing inquiry in both the arts and the sciences. Another project looks at the ways that human/plant relations are staged in botanical gardens and in ecological restoration sites in city parks.
Professor Myers is the convener of the Politics of Evidence Working Group (http://politicsofevidence.wordpress.com), co-founder of Toronto’s Technoscience Salon (http://technosalon.wordpress.com), and co-founder of the Write2Know Project (http://write2know.ca). Links to her projects can be found on her website (http://natashamyers.org)
Degrees
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMES, York University
BSc, McGill University
Professional Leadership
Convener of the Politics of Evidence Working Group (http://politicsofevidence.wordpress.com); Co-founder of the Technoscience Salon (http://technosalon.wordpress.com); Former member of Council for the Society for Social Studies of Science; Former editorial board member of the journal Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience
Community Contributions
Co-organizer of the Write2Know Project, a letter writing campaign that provides a platform for communities and educators to collaborate with science and technology studies scholars to pose pressing questions to federal scientists and ministers on matters of public and environmental health. http://write2know.ca
Collaborator with the Endocrine Disruptors Action Group. EDAction is a coalition of researchers concerned with the widespread presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals in bodies, commodities, built environments, industrial emissions, ecologies, waters, and atmospheres. EDAction researches ways to improve Canadian toxics governance and seeks to advance critical discussions about the regulation, science, and monitoring of endocrine disrupting chemicals guided by the values of reproductive and environmental justice. http://endocrinedisruptorsaction.org
Ally support for the Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle (http://indigenouslandstewardshipTO.wordpress.com)
Research Interests
- Early Researcher Award, Ontario Government - 2012-2017
- Robert K Merton Prize, American Sociological Association, Science, Knowledge and Technology Section - 2016
Leave of Absence
Not currently accepting new graduate students
Anthropology of art, science and ecology; anti-colonial, feminist science studies; anthropology of the senses; pedagogy and visualization; plants, ecologies, and more-than-human anthropology.
Natasha Myers is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at York University. Her ethnographic research examines forms of life in the contemporary arts and sciences. Her first book, Rendering Life Molecular (Duke University Press, 2015) is an ethnography of an interdisciplinary group of scientists who make living substance come to matter at the molecular scale. This book maps protein modeling techniques in the context of the ongoing molecularization of life in the biosciences. It explores how protein modelers’ multidimensional data forms are shifting the cusp of visibility, the contours of the biological imagination, and the nature of living substance. What, it asks, does life become in their hands? This book was the recipient of the 2016 Robert K. Merton Award from the Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association.
With support from an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Government and a SSHRC RDI Grant, she convened the Plant Studies Collaboratory in 2010 to serve as a node for collaborative interdisciplinary research on plant-based ecologies and economies. In new work, she is experimenting with ways to document the affective ecologies that take shape between plants and people, and among plants and their remarkably multi-species relations. One project looks at ways the phenomena of plant sensing and communication are galvanizing inquiry in both the arts and the sciences. Another project looks at the ways that human/plant relations are staged in botanical gardens and in ecological restoration sites in city parks.
Professor Myers is the convener of the Politics of Evidence Working Group (http://politicsofevidence.wordpress.com), co-founder of Toronto’s Technoscience Salon (http://technosalon.wordpress.com), and co-founder of the Write2Know Project (http://write2know.ca). Links to her projects can be found on her website (http://natashamyers.org)
Degrees
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyMES, York University
BSc, McGill University
Professional Leadership
Convener of the Politics of Evidence Working Group (http://politicsofevidence.wordpress.com); Co-founder of the Technoscience Salon (http://technosalon.wordpress.com); Former member of Council for the Society for Social Studies of Science; Former editorial board member of the journal Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience
Community Contributions
Co-organizer of the Write2Know Project, a letter writing campaign that provides a platform for communities and educators to collaborate with science and technology studies scholars to pose pressing questions to federal scientists and ministers on matters of public and environmental health. http://write2know.ca
Collaborator with the Endocrine Disruptors Action Group. EDAction is a coalition of researchers concerned with the widespread presence of endocrine disrupting chemicals in bodies, commodities, built environments, industrial emissions, ecologies, waters, and atmospheres. EDAction researches ways to improve Canadian toxics governance and seeks to advance critical discussions about the regulation, science, and monitoring of endocrine disrupting chemicals guided by the values of reproductive and environmental justice. http://endocrinedisruptorsaction.org
Ally support for the Indigenous Land Stewardship Circle (http://indigenouslandstewardshipTO.wordpress.com)
Research Interests
Awards
- Early Researcher Award, Ontario Government - 2012-2017
- Robert K Merton Prize, American Sociological Association, Science, Knowledge and Technology Section - 2016
