Sandra Widmer

Sandra Widmer is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Department of Anthropology at York University, part of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. Her research focuses on medicine, science, reproduction, and colonialism, particularly in the southwestern Pacific Islands (Vanuatu), Canada, and digital spaces. She holds a PhD from York University and MA/BA degrees from Dalhousie University.

Research Themes:

• Reproductive justice and datafication of reproduction
• Indigenous kinship and land care in Vanuatu
• Social life of microbiome tests and personalized nutrition
• Colonial impacts on metabolism and labor governance

Current Projects:

• Moral Figures: Making Reproduction Public in Vanuatu (examines quantification of reproduction and indigenous resilience)
• Eating for Trillions: DTC Microbiome Tests (SSHRC-funded study on microbiome tests and fermentation cultures)
• Metabolizing Modernity (investigates colonial nutrition science in Pacific labor systems)

Background: Previously held postdoctoral positions at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin) and visiting roles at the University of Auckland and University of Toronto. Identifies as a settler scholar with ancestral ties to Tkaronto.