Sarah Blacker
Sessional Assistant Professor (On Leave through May 2024)
Health & Society (HESO)
Office: 724 Ross Building South
Email: sblacker@yorku.ca
Sarah Blacker is a Sessional Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Science’s Health & Society Program. Her current book project, Warding off Disease: Racialization and Health in Settler Colonial Canada, investigates the relationship between biomedical pronouncements on race and their social repercussions, including ongoing colonial and systemic racist practices.
Before joining the Department of Social Science, Dr. Blacker was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology (2019-2021), and a Research Associate at the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York. Between 2015-2019, Dr. Blacker was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and a Lecturer in the M.A. Program in Science and Technology Studies at the Munich Center for Technology in Society, Germany.
Dr. Blacker’s recent publications on race-based environmental health inequities, evidence practices in settler colonial public health, racialization in biomedicine and clinical trials, citizen science, and data justice have been published in Social Studies of Science, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, PUBLIC, and Parallax, among other journals.
Degrees
PhD, Department of English and Film Studies, University of AlbertaMA, Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, McMaster University
BAH, Contemporary Studies and History, University of King’s College
Research Interests
Blacker, Sarah. 2022. “The Invisible Labour of Translating Indigenous Traditional Knowledge in Canada.” Invisible Labour in Modern Science. Edited by Jenny Bangham, Xan Chacko, and Judith Kaplan. Rowman & Littlefield. 137–48.
Blacker, Sarah. 2020. “Analogue Privacy: The Paper Shredder as a Technology for Knowledge Destruction.” Boxes: A Field Guide. Edited by Susanne Bauer, Martina Schlünder, and Maria Rentetzi. Mattering Press. 364-378.
Blacker, Sarah. 2012. “Science Studies.” The Johns Hopkins Guide to Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory. Edited by Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth, and Imre Szeman. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 457-466.
Blacker, Sarah. 2022. “Technologies of Quiescence: Measuring Biodiversity, ‘Intactness,’ and Extractive Industry in Canada.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 8 (2): 1–25.
Blacker, Sarah, Aya H. Kimura, and Abby Kinchy. 2021. “When Citizen Science Is Public Relations.” Social Studies of Science 51 (5): 780–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127211027662.
Blacker, Sarah. 2021. “Strategic Translation: Pollution, Data, and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 27 (S1): 142–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13485.
Blacker, Sarah and Imre Szeman. 2014. “Between the Exception and the Rule.” PUBLIC: Art / Culture / Ideas 50: 7-18.
Blacker, Sarah. 2014. “‘Your DNA Doesn’t Need to Be Your Destiny’: Colonialism, Public Health and the Financialization of Medicine.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, no. 30–31: 123–46.
Blacker, Sarah. 2010. “Epistemic Trafficking: On the Concept of Race-Specific Medicine.” English Studies in Canada 36.1: 127-148.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC3921 6.0 | A | Indigenous Health and Healing | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC4140 6.0 | A | Health and Society Seminar | SEMR |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/SOSC4141 3.0 | M | Women and Health | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC3921 6.0 | A | Indigenous Health and Healing | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC4140 6.0 | A | Health and Society Seminar | SEMR |
Sarah Blacker is a Sessional Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Science’s Health & Society Program. Her current book project, Warding off Disease: Racialization and Health in Settler Colonial Canada, investigates the relationship between biomedical pronouncements on race and their social repercussions, including ongoing colonial and systemic racist practices.
Before joining the Department of Social Science, Dr. Blacker was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology (2019-2021), and a Research Associate at the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at York. Between 2015-2019, Dr. Blacker was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and a Lecturer in the M.A. Program in Science and Technology Studies at the Munich Center for Technology in Society, Germany.
Dr. Blacker’s recent publications on race-based environmental health inequities, evidence practices in settler colonial public health, racialization in biomedicine and clinical trials, citizen science, and data justice have been published in Social Studies of Science, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, PUBLIC, and Parallax, among other journals.
Degrees
PhD, Department of English and Film Studies, University of AlbertaMA, Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, McMaster University
BAH, Contemporary Studies and History, University of King’s College
Research Interests
All Publications
Blacker, Sarah. 2022. “The Invisible Labour of Translating Indigenous Traditional Knowledge in Canada.” Invisible Labour in Modern Science. Edited by Jenny Bangham, Xan Chacko, and Judith Kaplan. Rowman & Littlefield. 137–48.
Blacker, Sarah. 2020. “Analogue Privacy: The Paper Shredder as a Technology for Knowledge Destruction.” Boxes: A Field Guide. Edited by Susanne Bauer, Martina Schlünder, and Maria Rentetzi. Mattering Press. 364-378.
Blacker, Sarah. 2012. “Science Studies.” The Johns Hopkins Guide to Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory. Edited by Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth, and Imre Szeman. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 457-466.
Blacker, Sarah. 2022. “Technologies of Quiescence: Measuring Biodiversity, ‘Intactness,’ and Extractive Industry in Canada.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 8 (2): 1–25.
Blacker, Sarah, Aya H. Kimura, and Abby Kinchy. 2021. “When Citizen Science Is Public Relations.” Social Studies of Science 51 (5): 780–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/03063127211027662.
Blacker, Sarah. 2021. “Strategic Translation: Pollution, Data, and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 27 (S1): 142–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13485.
Blacker, Sarah and Imre Szeman. 2014. “Between the Exception and the Rule.” PUBLIC: Art / Culture / Ideas 50: 7-18.
Blacker, Sarah. 2014. “‘Your DNA Doesn’t Need to Be Your Destiny’: Colonialism, Public Health and the Financialization of Medicine.” TOPIA: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, no. 30–31: 123–46.
Blacker, Sarah. 2010. “Epistemic Trafficking: On the Concept of Race-Specific Medicine.” English Studies in Canada 36.1: 127-148.
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC3921 6.0 | A | Indigenous Health and Healing | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC4140 6.0 | A | Health and Society Seminar | SEMR |
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/SOSC4141 3.0 | M | Women and Health | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC3921 6.0 | A | Indigenous Health and Healing | SEMR |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/SOSC4140 6.0 | A | Health and Society Seminar | SEMR |
