Michelle Murphy

Michelle Murphy is a Professor at the University of Toronto's School of Environment and cross-appointed to the Women & Gender Studies Institute. She holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Environmental Data Justice and Science and Technology Studies (STS), and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. Her work merges anti-colonial, feminist, and Indigenous STS frameworks to interrogate the relationships between chemicals, colonialism, and data justice.

• PhD, Harvard University (1998)
• BSc, University of Toronto (1992)

Murphy's research focuses on alterlife—life already materially transformed by industrial chemicals—and anti-colonial approaches to chemical exposure in the Great Lakes region. She co-directs the Technoscience Research Unit and Indigenous Environmental Data Justice Lab, which partners with Aamjiwnaang First Nation to address pollution in Chemical Valley. Her projects include the Pollution Reporter App and CFREF-funded work on ethical substance discovery integrating Indigenous knowledge with AI/chemistry.

Her 15 most recent publications (2017–2025) span environmental data justice, decolonial methods, endocrine disruptors, and ethical substance frameworks. Key keywords include Indigenous STS, chemical violence, and alterlife, with sub-fields like pollution colonialism, data sovereignty, and intergenerational exposure.

• 2024 President’s Impact Award, University of Toronto
• 2020 Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
• 2019 Ludwik Fleck Prize
• 2017 Making and Doing Award, Society for the Social Studies of Science
• 2017 J. Franklin Jameson Archival Advocacy Award

Murphy co-organized the Technoscience Salon and founded the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI). She leads the SSHRC-funded Alterlife project, examining how capitalism and colonialism alter life through chemical exposure.