sblacker


Sarah Blacker

Photo of Sarah Blacker

Sessional Assistant Professor (On Leave through May 2023)
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.

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Degrees

PhD, Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta
MA, Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, McMaster University
BAH, Contemporary Studies and History, University of King’s College

Research Interests

, Health Equity; Anti-Racism; Race-Based Health Inequities; Racialization in Biomedicine and Clinical Trials; Indigenous Health, Knowledge, and Governance; Environmental Health and Environmental Justice; Science and Technology Studies; Citizen Science and Data Justice; AI and Algorithmic Discrimination in Health Care.
Books

Publication
Year

Szeman, Imre, Sarah Blacker, and Justin Sully, eds. 2017. A Companion to Critical and Cultural Theory. Wiley-Blackwell. 564 pages.

2017

Book Chapters

Publication
Year

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.

2022

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.

2020

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.

2012

Journal Articles

Publication
Year

Blacker, Sarah. 2022. “Technologies of Quiescence: Measuring Biodiversity, ‘Intactness,’ and Extractive Industry in Canada.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 8 (2): 1–25.

2022

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.

2021

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.

2021

Blacker, Sarah and Imre Szeman. 2014. “Between the Exception and the Rule.” PUBLIC: Art / Culture / Ideas 50: 7-18.

2014

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.

2014

Blacker, Sarah. 2010. “Epistemic Trafficking: On the Concept of Race-Specific Medicine.” English Studies in Canada 36.1: 127-148.

2010

Research Reports

Publication
Year

Blacker, Sarah, Aya Hirata Kimura, and Abby Kinchy. “When Collaboration becomes Co-optation: Citizen Science as Public Relations.” The London School of Economics and Political Science Impact Blog. February 23, 2022.

2022


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 Alberta
MA, Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, McMaster University
BAH, Contemporary Studies and History, University of King’s College

Research Interests

, Health Equity; Anti-Racism; Race-Based Health Inequities; Racialization in Biomedicine and Clinical Trials; Indigenous Health, Knowledge, and Governance; Environmental Health and Environmental Justice; Science and Technology Studies; Citizen Science and Data Justice; AI and Algorithmic Discrimination in Health Care.

All Publications


Book Chapters

Publication
Year

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.

2022

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.

2020

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.

2012

Books

Publication
Year

Szeman, Imre, Sarah Blacker, and Justin Sully, eds. 2017. A Companion to Critical and Cultural Theory. Wiley-Blackwell. 564 pages.

2017

Journal Articles

Publication
Year

Blacker, Sarah. 2022. “Technologies of Quiescence: Measuring Biodiversity, ‘Intactness,’ and Extractive Industry in Canada.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 8 (2): 1–25.

2022

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.

2021

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.

2021

Blacker, Sarah and Imre Szeman. 2014. “Between the Exception and the Rule.” PUBLIC: Art / Culture / Ideas 50: 7-18.

2014

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.

2014

Blacker, Sarah. 2010. “Epistemic Trafficking: On the Concept of Race-Specific Medicine.” English Studies in Canada 36.1: 127-148.

2010

Research Reports

Publication
Year

Blacker, Sarah, Aya Hirata Kimura, and Abby Kinchy. “When Collaboration becomes Co-optation: Citizen Science as Public Relations.” The London School of Economics and Political Science Impact Blog. February 23, 2022.

2022