About the Lab

Black Box Labs (est. 2020) is a research and training laboratory in the Science in Society Program at Wesleyan University that offers students training in qualitative research methods aligned with science and technology studies and the opportunity to collaborate with faculty on research. Our lab’s icon, the black box, has different valances in science studies, critical race theory, and design and performance studies, each of which contributes meaning for our work. Sometimes, we deconstruct black boxes by analyzing the power relationships that shape science and technology; other times, we get in black boxes to escape like Henry “Box” Brown, other times. Occasionally, we close the curtains to create meaningful things with each other in them as in the intimate space of the black box theater. Our vision is that Black Box Labs will be a generative force for faculty-student-community research collaborations that draw upon the methodological insights of science and technology studies to do the work of science, technology, and social justice. As a lab, we are inspired by the radical spaces of critical scholars, activists, revolutionaries, and performers around the world who conspire for justice, freedom, and liberation. We aim to decipher methods, translate technoscience, and foster justice.