Signifying a simultaneous disruption to and opening up of technoscience, Black Technoscience “Here” engages with the rich body of aesthetic, artistic and scholarly work on (anti)blackness, science, technology, material cultures, health, consent and ethics both within North America and throughout the African diaspora to collectively question what it means to activate black technoscience thought “here”, in Toronto, at this moment, within the confines of the neoliberal university.

In conversation with critical technoscience scholars who have spoken against both the eurocentrism and US-centrism of technoscience (Pollock & Subramaniam, 2016), and taking inspiration from the multiple ways black cultural production, can, as Katherine McKittrick (2010) argues, “writ[e] scientific knowledge anew,” we will think alongside a range of invited Black scholars, artists, activists and practitioners who will present and perform across the themes of blackness, ethics and material cultures” (128). By centering transnational and diasporic Black technoscientific praxes and methodologies, the primary goals of this working group will be to : 1) to broaden perspectives on what we conceive as technoscientific thought and method, and; 2) to recognize the politics of doing so within Canada, and as part of a transnational dialogue.

As we bring together a diverse range of creative scholars, writers, artists and technoscientists over the course of the year, we will publicize and promote our meditations on Black technoscientific methodologies, epistemologies and ontologies through social media by tweeting under the hashtag #blacktechnoscienceHERE. We seek to simultaneously disrupt and make more capacious the realm of technoscience, and in so doing we  prioritize forms of creative and accessible intellectual outputs as important forms of knowledge and commitment.

This year’s organizers included Nicole Charles (University of Toronto Mississauga) and OmiSoore Dryden (Thorneloe University) with assistance from Kristen Bos (University of Toronto) and Michelle Murphy (University of Toronto). Thank you to the sponsors of Black Technoscience “Here,” including the McLuhan Centre, Technoscience Research Unit, WGSI.