METALab
The META Lab (or Laboratory for Modes of Embodiment in Technoscience and Anthropology) borrows a set of practices that have long been productive in scientific training. One of the most significant features of scientific labs is that they offer a group-based pedagogical structure for the training and continual retraining researchers require as they pursue new questions. The META Lab generates peer-mentorship through monthly group meetings, “journal clubs” and collective research in select fieldsites. Currently the laboratory supports the mentorship of students who conduct research in the anthropology of bodies and modes of embodiment in science, technology, and medicine; ethnographies of material agencies; animal and plant studies; pedagogy; visual cultures; representation, identity and performance; human-computer interactions; anthropology of the senses; cultures of science and engineering; and art-science convergences and collaborations. With the support of a Teaching Development Grant in 2008-09, the META lab will be hosting seminars with local anthropologists and STS scholars. Currently the lab is composed of 14 graduate students based in the Department of Anthropology at York University.
