
Dr Mark Paterson - https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2701-4827
IASH-SSPS Research Fellow, September - December 2022
Home Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Mark Paterson is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. He has an interest in the history and science of bodily sensation, blindness, and technologies of the senses. Along with articles published in humanities and social science journals, he is author of books including The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies (2007), Seeing with the Hands: Blindness, Vision and Touch After Descartes (2016), How We Became Sensorimotor: Movement, Measurement, Sensation (2021), and co-editor of Touching Place, Spacing Touch (2012). His research website is sensory-motor.com.
Project title: Figuring Difference and Inclusivity within Human-Robot Interaction Design: The Case of Socially Assistive Robotics in Edinburgh
Robots designed for social interaction can tell us a great deal about the norms and assumptions of their interaction designers and engineers. Within a larger book project on embodiment and human-robot interaction (HRI), my fellowship will address a delineated subproject: conducting site visits and interviews in Edinburgh to evaluate past efforts and future directions for more inclusive tactile and gesture-based interactions between diverse human users and physical robots at Heriot-Watt University, the Edinburgh Robotics Centre and the new National Robotarium.