York University Science & Technology Studies Graduate Conference 2026

Summary

The YorkU STS Graduate Student Association presents a hybrid in-person/online conference on STS AFTER CRITIQUE: transforming sociotechnical injustices. The theme for this year's conference is about the steps we take after acknowledging and critiquing the ways in which science and technology are situated, and thus, can be otherwise. This conference will engage with works and thinkers that disrupt stigmatizing, segregating, patriarchal, racialized, ableist, and colonial ways of practicing science and technology.

Accessibility

There will be an accessibility liason present during the conference. If you have any accessibility needs, please contact our team at: [email protected]

Registration

Registration opens at 8:30 AM with the formal conference proceedings commencing at 9 AM. See the Agenda provided below for further information about the plan for the day.

Land Acknowledgement

First Nations peoples have lived on this part of Turtle Island for millennia, stewarding the land, the water and all that contributes to life in this region. Today, the culture and presence of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples enrich the lands and people of this territory.

More than two centuries ago, the Mississauga people welcomed settlers to this territory, providing sustenance and engaging in trade and commerce. Between 1781 and 1820, eight treaties were signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, who opened their territory to settlement. Today, York University’s Keele Campus is located on Toronto Purchase Treaty, No. 13 lands and is situated on the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee.

Treaty history is foundational, and it is our collective responsibility to honour the land, as we honour and respect those who have gone before us, those who are here and those who have yet to come. We are grateful for the opportunity to be learning, working and thriving on this land, and we commit to learn the truth and be active in the process of reconciliation.

Info: Presentations: 1. Addressing Epistemic Injustice in Mental Healthcare and Policy
by Ayesha Bhatti (York University); 2. “Oxygen isn’t taking anything away from people“: Interrogating Supplemental Oxygen as a Harm Reductionist “Technology of Solidarity” in Vancouver, Canada by Aaron Bailey (University of Victoria; Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research); 3. When metrics harm: BMI, medical Authority, and the afterlives of colonial health classifications by Rosario del Pilar Rodríguez Romani (York University); 4. Negotiating the "functional" body: stimulant use and the demands for productivity by Lauren Predebon (Universidad de la República).

Info: Keynote theme: AI After Critique: Decolonization, Sociotechnical Adaptation, and Futurities

Info: Presentations: 1. Colonial Intelligences: Standardized Language Testing and Artificial Intelligence in the Post-colonial Context by Muskan Khan (York University); 2. Can AI-Enabled Communication Tools Transform Workplace Justice? by Michael Ben (York University); 3. Calling a Halt to Technologies of Abandonment by Susan Campbell (York University and OCAD University); 4. Trauma as an Epistemic Technology by Gwyn Peters (York University).

Info: With Associate Professor Robert W Gehl, Assistant Professor Antulio Rosales, & Assistant Professor sava saheli singh.

Info: Presentations: 1. The Palestinian Archive as an Infrastructure of Decolonization by Tamara Rayan (University of Michigan); 2. Digital Sovereignty from the South: Examining Guyana’s Resistance to Big Tech Hegemony by Christina Pilgrim (Queen's University); 3. Decentering narratives of innovation: The case of mobile money in West Africa by Nado Ariane Paré (Université de Montréal).

Info: Presentations: 1. Digital Nomads on Upwork: Negotiating Freedom in the Algorithmic Platform by Zheng Zhou (York University); 2. “Maintenance is our middle name”: Computer repair expertise and the Indian state by Jai Vipra (Cornell University); 3. Water Infrastructure as Democratic Praxis in Freetown, Sierra Leone by Brian Waters (York University).

Info: Letter writing workshop: "Dear **, with care, with respect" by Freyja Wang (Bielefeld University)

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Host or Publisher York University Science & Technology Studies Graduate Student Association