Staff Research Scholar, Indigenous Science, Technology, and Environment (Limited Term)

Date Posted: 12/19/2023
Req ID:35473
Faculty/Division: Faculty of Arts & Science
Department: Acceleration Consortium
Campus: St. George (Downtown Toronto)

Description:

The Acceleration Consortium (AC) at the University of Toronto (U of T) is leading a transformative shift to accelerate materials discovery informed by ethics, economics, and Indigenous science and technology studies. The AC is a global community of academia, industry, and government that brings together artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, materials sciences, and high-throughput chemistry to create self-driving laboratories (SDLs), also called materials acceleration platforms (MAPs). These autonomous labs rapidly design materials and molecules towards a sustainable, healthy, and resilient future, with applications ranging from renewable energy to drugs. A mandate of the AC is to ensure that all materials and technologies are ethically designed towards sustainability, including by engaging with community and Indigenous knowledges

The Acceleration Consortium (AC) promotes inclusive research environment and supports the EDI priorities of the unit.

The Acceleration Consortium received a $200M Canadian First Research Excellence Grant for seven years to develop self-driving labs for chemistry and materials, the largest ever grant to a Canadian University. This grant will give the Acceleration Consortium seven years of funding to execute its vision, including support for Indigenous STS research.

The Staff Research Scholar for Indigenous Science, Technology, and Environment will contribute to our understanding of how Indigenous knowledges and research practices can inform any of the following: conceptions of sustainability as it relates to chemicals and pollution; or the development and use of AIs; or Indigenous approaches to robotics; or Indigenous approaches to platforms.This position foregrounds Indigenous approaches that center Indigenous relationality and sovereignty; Indigenous understandings of land, water, matter, or sustainability; or Indigenous research methods. This position will work closely with faculty and staff at the Indigenous-led Technoscience Research Unit (TRU) to ensure the ethical integration of Indigenous knowledges and values into research design for materials discovery and applications as it relates to the AC and to contribute to the development of Indigenous Science, Technology and Environment (Indigenous STE) and Indigenous Science and Technology Studies (Indigenous STS) in the AC, the TRU, and the University, broadly.

The Technoscience Research Unit (TRU) is an Indigenous-led interdisciplinary lab for creative and critical social science, humanities, and design research concerning science and technology, with a strength in Indigenous-led research, environmental justice, and data/AI ethics. The TRU is affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and Science, the Faculty of Information, and the Acceleration Consortium. The TRU hosts an Indigenous Environmental Data Justice Lab, organizes public events and workshops, and supports the research of students, faculty and community researchers. The TRU is particularly dedicated to fostering Indigenous Science and Technology Studies as well as supporting BIPOC and 2SLGBTQA+ researchers.

This position will also work with the AC Indigenous Research Circle (IRC), which is an Indigenous leadership team and advisory body to the AC Scientific Leadership Team on matters related to research design, ethical governance, Indigenous-led research activities, Indigenous engagement in research team building, and partnership development with Indigenous communities.

This is a two-year limited term position with possibility of renewal.

Candidates that have experience in any of the areas below will be prioritized:

• Indigenous and/or anti-colonial approaches to science
• Environment​​al justice
• Environmental data justice
• Indigenous understandings of sustainability
• Land-based methodologies research
• Collaborative research practices
• Working with Indigenous data sovereignty and data justice frameworks, following the First Nations Principles of OCAP® (ownership, control, access, and possession) for engagements with First Nations communities, and the CARE principles.
• Indigenous environmental knowledges and public policy
• Indigenous approaches to AIs and robotics
• Indigenous approaches to lab science

The components and duties of the work include:

Leading research on Indigenous science, technology and the environment (Indigenous STE) and/or Indigenous science and technology studies (Indigenous STS).