TRANSOR

  • RESEARCH NETWORK FOR TRANSDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN SOCIAL ROBOTICS

About the network

The Research Network for Transdisciplinary Studies in Social Robotics (TRANSOR) is a platform for research exchange and joint Humanities research in social robotics, connecting researchers in philosophy, robotics, cognitive science, psychology, anthropology, educational science, linguistics, art and design studies, and communication and media studies.

The purpose of TRANSOR is to create research pathways within and between Danish and international research groups throughout Europe, in the USA, Korea, and Japan.  One of the particular aims of TRANSOR is to address methodological problems of research in social robotics.


Current Members


Dina A Babushkina

Dr. Phil; Dr. SocSc, Associate Professor

University of Twente Department of Philosophy

Contact

Research areas:

  • Ethics and epistemology of Artificial Intelligence
  • Social robotics
  • Hybrid decision making

Emma Barsegova

MA in Social Anthropology

 CEU

Contact

Research areas:

  • HRI and anthropology of technology
  • Biopolitics and posthumanism
  • Contemporary and bio-/science art

Martin Mose Bentzen

Ph.D.

 Independent researcher

Contact

Research areas:

  • Machine ethics
  • Deontic logic
  • Ethics related to technology

Mark H. Bickhard

Professor of cognitive robotics and Philosophy of Knowledge, Director of Institute for Interactivist Studies

 Lehigh University Department of Philosophy

Contact

Research areas:

  • Process Metaphysics in Psychology
  • Agentive Cognition Emergence
  • Consciousness Dynamics
  • Representational Interactions

Jens Christian Krarup Bjerring

Ph.D., Associate Professor in philosophy

 Aarhus University Department of philosophy

Contact

Research areas:

  • Epistemology of AI
  • Philosphical Logic

Leon Bodenhagen

Ph.D., Associate Professor 

University of Southern Denmark Department of Robotics

Contact

Research areas:

  • HRI
  • Human aware navigation
  • Service robotics

Catherine F. Botha

Professor of Philosophy

  University of Johannesburg, South Africa (ZA)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art
  • Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Philosophy of Technology, with Focus on the Ethics and Aesthetics of AI
  • Animal Ethics and Bioethics

Maja Hojer Bruun

Anthropologist, Associate Professor

 Aarhus University Department Educational anthropology and the Danish School of Education

Contact

Research areas:

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Robotics Technology
  • Data Analytics
  • Ethnographic Studies
  • Workplace Dynamics

Amanda Brødsgaard

PhD Fellow

  The Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen (DK)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • STS, robotics
  • Japan Studies
  • Semiotics
  • Techno-nationalism

Catherine Caudwell

Dr., Senior Lecturer

Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation

Contact

Research areas:

  • Social robot design
  • User experience design of robots
  • Sociocultural studies of robots

Dylan Cawthorne

Ph.D., Associate Professor 

University of Southern Denmark Drone Center

Contact

Research areas:

  • Ethics
  • Social Science
  • Value-Sensitive Design

Leon Bodenhagen

Dr., Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures

University of Sydney Discipline of Media and Communications

Contact

Research areas:

  • Social Robots in Public Spaces
  • Anthropomorphism in Human-Robot Interaction
  • Mediation and Phenomenology in Robotics
  • Professional Cultures of Roboticists

Aurélie Clodic

Research Engineer, Dr., HDR

LAAS CNRS Toulouse, France  

Contact

Research areas:

  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Robophilosophy
  • Joint Action

Mark Coeckelbergh

Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology

University of Vienna Department of Philosophy

Contact

Research areas:

  • Ethics of robotics and AI
  • Intercultural robotics

Emily S. Cross

Ph.D., Professor

University of Glasgow & Western Sydney University 

Contact

Research areas:

  • Embodied Experience in Social Interaction
  • Long-term Engagement with Artificial Agents
  • Behavioral and Brain-based Studies in Human-Agent Interaction
  • Perceptual and Interactional Dynamics with Embodied and Screen-based Agents

Kerstin Fischer

Professor, Dr.

University of Southern Denmark Department of Design and Communication

Contact

Research areas:

  • Linguistics and Communication in Technology Interaction
  • Multimodal Interaction Analysis in Human-Robot Interaction
  • Linguistic and Communication Perspectives on Robot Interaction

Arzu Formánek

Phd Researcher,

University of Vienna /Philosophy Department.

Contact

Research areas:

  • Philosophy of Technology
  • Robot Ethics
  • Robot Moral Patiency
  • Social Robots
  • Interactivism
  • Cognitive Science
  • Robophilosophy
  • HRI

Dane L. Gogoshin

Ph.D.

University of Helsinki RADAR Researcher

Contact

Research areas:

  • Moral responsibility, artificial moral agency
  • Responsible design of AI and robots
  • Autonomy and technology, HRI

David J. Gunkel

Professor,

Northern Illinois University (USA)

Contact

Research areas:

  • AI Ethics
  • Robot Law and Ethics
  • Philosophy of Technology
  • Human Machine Communication

Arnaud Henneville-Wedholm

Head of Sales

  Furhat Robotics (SE)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • HRI
  • Conversational robots
  • TTS (Text-to-Speech)
  • Neuroscience

Ruud Hortensius

Assistant Professor

Utrecht University

Contact

Contact

Research areas:

  • Social Cognition
  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Neuroimaging
  • Long-Term Engagement
  • Behavioral Testing

Stanislav Ivanov

Professor and vice-rector

  Varna University of Management, Bulgaria (BG)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Robonomics, Robotics, and AI
  • Service Automation in Hospitality
  • Hotel Marketing and Revenue Management
  • Destination Marketing and Management
  • Tourism's Economic and Political Implications

Frederieke Jansen

MA, Data Analyst

Netherlands (NL)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Art
  • Anthropomorphism
  • Robots
  • Technology
  • Interaction

Peter H. Kahn, Jr.

Professor

Department of Psychology & School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle

Contact

Research areas:

  • human-robot interaction 
  • human-nature interaction 
  • authenticity of being 
  • human flourishing

Franziska Kirstein

Senior Scientific Domain Lead,

Blue Ocean Robotics (DK)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Human Robot Interaction
  • Robots for Sustainability
  • Robot development

Dimosthenis Kontogiorgos

PostDoctoral Researcher

 University of Potsdam (DE)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Artificial Intelligence

Antonia Lina Krummheuer

Associate Professor

  Aalborg University (DK)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Social Robotics
  • HRI
  • Agency
  • Ethnography
  • Co-creation

Leonardo Espinosa Leal

Senior Lecturer in Big Data Analytics

  Arcada University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland (FI)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Applied Machine Learning
  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Autonomous Agents
  • Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing
  • Time Series Forecasting
  • Multiscale Modelling
  • Reinforcement Learning
  • Ethics of AI and Philosophy of Technology

Nicola Liberati

Associate Professor

  shanghai Jiao Tong University, Dept of Philosophy

Contact

Research areas:

  • Digital Intimacy
  • Digital Emotions
  • Phenomenology
  • Postphenomenology
  • Sexrobots
  • Augmented Reality
  • Teledildonics
  • Smart Textile

Carlo Mazzola

PhD Student

  Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Unit - Italian Institute of Tecnology (IIT).

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Social Robotics
  • Cognitive Robotics
  • Multi-modal Deep-Learning
  • Artificial Self.

Zachary McDowell

 PhD. Assistant Professor,

  University of Illinois at Chicago Department of Communication (USA)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Information literacy 
  • knowledge equity
  • data ethics
  • access and knowledge equity
  • cybernetics
  • political economy of AI
  • human-machine communication

Felipe Meija-Medina

MA Candidate

  Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences Argentina (FLACSO) - Universidad El Bosque (CO)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Global digital health
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Art
  • Photography
  • Video
  • Bioethics
  • Technology
  • Expanded societies.

Ann Katrine Bønnelykke Miranda

Docent/reader

  Copenhagen University College, School of Nursing (DK)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Healthcare technology
  • Technical literacy in health care
  • Workplace studies
  • Educational studies

Diana Mocanu

PhD Student

  Institute for Interdisciplinary Research in Legal Sciences, Centre for Philosophy of Law (CPDR), Université Catholique de Louvain (BE)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Legal Status of Artificial Intelligence in the European Union
  • Classification Options: Things in the Law, Legal Persons, or Sui Generis Legal Entities
  • Formulating Arguments for and Against Each Classification
  • Future "Portrait-Robot" of AI's Legal Status in the EU

Julián Camilo Riaño Moreno

Physician, researcher, Ph.D. in Bioethics.

  Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia: Faculty of Medicine, El Bosque University, Colombia: Head of Genetics and Molecular Oncology Unit, National Institute of Cancerology, Colombia (CO)

Research areas:

  • Biopolitics and Genetics
  • AI in Biomedicine and Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS)
  • Roboethics in Biomedicine
  • International Health Regulations (IHR), Values, Capacities, and Doctor-Patient Relationship
  • Vulnerability and Trust in IHR

Pekka Mäkelä

Dr. In practical philosophy, research coordinator

  Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland (FI)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Normative Dimensions of Collective and Social Action
  • Collective Responsibility and Trust
  • Social Ontology
  • Philosophy of the Social Sciences
  • Philosophical Problems of Social Robotics and Human-Robot Interaction

Makoto Nakada

 Professor

  University of Tsukuba (JP)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Roboethics and Information Ethics
  • Intercultural Information Ethics
  • Japanese Views on Life and Mono no Aware
  • Comparative Views on Privacy: West vs. East

Vivek Nallur

Dr., Assistant Professor

  University College Dublin (IE)

Contact 

Contact

Research areas:

  • Machine Ethics
  • Multi-Agent Systems
  • Autonomic and Adaptive Systems

Mois Navon

 Lecturer

  Ben Gurion University (IL)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Robo-ethics
  • Computer Ethics
  • Machine Ethics
  • Big Data
  • Autonomous Systems
  • Technology
  • Artificial Intelligence

Karsten Nymand

 Vice-Director at Groove Inc, Chairman of Startup Odense, Chairman of Grønt Odense, Vice-chairman of ULYS, Art Director of The O'town Garage, Technical Lead at HAL1.

  Denmark (DK)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Robotics
  • Philosophy
  • Neuroscience
  • Machine learning
  • Future Scenarios
  • Astrophysics. 

Lionel Obadia

Professor in anthropology

  University of Lyon, France (FR)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Robots and culture
  • Beliefs and/in robots
  • Human-robot interaction
  • Sociological approaches in/to robotics 

Ziggy O'Reilly

PhD Student

   Social Cognition in Human-Robot Interaction - Italian Institute of Technology (IT)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Robot ethics
  • Intentional stance
  • Theory of mind
  • Social robotics
  • Human-robot interaction
  • Art & science

Jaana Parviainen

Senior researcher.

  Tampere University (FI)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Care Robotics and Ethics
  • Phenomenology and Embodiment in Robotics
  • Intercorporeality and Digital Proxemics
  • Digital Self-Service and Governance
  • AI Ethics and Governance

John Pender

Dr., Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Foresight Studies

  Atlantic Technological University (IE)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Social Robotics in Health and Social Care
  • AI Applications in Social Work
  • Algoracy and Future Politics and Society
  • Social Robots in Non-STEM Learning Environments
  • Impacts of Disruptive Technologies on Professional Identities

Simon Penny

Professor

  Electronic Art and Design, University of California Irvine (USA)

Contact

Research areas:

  • History of Technology and its Implications
  • Neuroscience and Anthropology of Cognition
  • Critique of AI, Computing, and Digital Cultures
  • Interactive Media Art and Philosophy
  • Technology of Sustainability and Indigenous Pacific Seafaring

Alessio Plebe

Professor

  Dept. of Cognitive Sicence, University of Messina (IT)

Contact

Contact

Research areas:

  • Philosophy of Science in Artificial Intelligence
  • Future Trends in Human-Machine Interaction

Laura Racciatti

School teacher

  Germany (DE)

Research areas:

  • Philosophy of Language
  • Ethics
  • Feminist philosophy. 

Josh Redstone

Dr., Instructor

  Department of Philosophy and Department of Cognitive Science, Carleton University (CA)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Cognitive Science
  • Minds, Machines and A.I.
  • Philosophy of Technology

Peter Reichl

Professor, Head of Research Group Cooperative Systems

  Department of Computer Science, University of Vienna (AT)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Computer Science
  • Communication Networks
  • Techoeconomics
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Raffaele Rodogno

Associate Professor.

  Department of Philosophy and History of Ideas, Aarhus University (DK)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Social Robots
  • AI Ethics
  • Study of Emotion
  • Well-being in AI

Bojana Romic

Senior Lecturer.

  Malmö university (SE)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Robotic art
  • Nonhuman creativity
  • Science and Technology Studies
  • Science Communication
  • Media Studies

Eleanor Sandry

Senior Lecturer.

  School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry, Curtin University (AU)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Human-Machine Communication
  • Human-Robot Interaction
  • Technology Ethics
  • Communication Theory
  • Philosophy of Technology

Oliver Schürer

Senior Scientist, Dr.techn, Dipl.-Ing., Researcher, university teacher

  Architecture Theory and Philosophy of Technics, ATTP, Institute of Architecture Sciences, Vienna University of Technology (AT)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Social robotics
  • Interaction by movement and speech improvisation
  • Contemporary dance
  • Ethics
  • Care
  • Artistic research methodology

Anna Strasser

Dr., independent, freelance researcher

  LMU Munich, Germany (DE)

Contact

Research areas:

  • Social Cognition: Philosophy, Psychology, and AI
  • Social Human-Machine Interactions
  • Distributed Responsibility in Technology
  • Language Models in AI

Ilona Straub

Dr., Postdoc and Chair of General Sociology and Cultural Sociology

  University of Konstanz, Germany (DE)

Contact

Research areas:

  •  Social theory
  • Social robotics
  • Teleoperation
  • Sociology of body
  • Multimodality
  • Human-robot-interaction
  • Ethnomethodology

John P. Sullins

Professor of philosophy: Director of Programming Center for Ethics Law and Society

  Sonoma State University (USA)

Contact 

Contact 

Research areas:

  • AI /Robotic Nudging
  • Machine Morality
  • Sustainability and AI/Robotics
  • Robo Ethics
  • Trust and AI/Robotics
  • Artificial Phronesis

Mate Szondy

PhD; Associate Professor

  Pazmany Peter Catholic University (Budapest, Hungary, HU)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Digital wellbeing
  • Digital mindfulness
  • Using social robots and AI in the education of psychologists

Vidmantas Tomkus

Dr./Researcher/FTMC

  Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, State Research Institute, Vilnius, Lithuania (LT)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • High Intensity Lasers
  • Free Space Communications
  • Quantum Communications
  • Unmanned Vehicles

Laura Trujillo-Liñan

Professor, researcher

  Universidad Panamericana (MX)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Ethics
  • Metaphysics
  • Anthropology
  • Media Studies
  • Human-Robot Communication

Evgenios Vlachos

Research Librarian, Associate professor

  University Library of Southern Denmark, SDU and The Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Institute, SDU (DK)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Social Robotics
  • Human Robot Interaction
  • Soft Robotics
  • Emotions and Nonverbal Behavior
  • Digital Humanities
  • Research Data Management  

Perry Share

Dr., Head of Student Success

  Atlantic Technological University (IE)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Social Robotics in the Social Professions
  • Regulation of Social Robotics
  • Workplace Integration of Social Robots
  • Professional Identity and Social Robots
  • Pedagogy and Training in Social Robotics

Robert Sparrow

Professor of philosophy

  Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Monash University (AU)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Ethics of Military Robotics
  • Ethics of Social Robotics
  • Aged Care Robotics
  • Robot Pets
  • Driverless Vehicles Ethics

Maud van Lier

PhD Student

  Department of philosophy - University of Konstanz (DE)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Agency and attributability of automated systems
  • Artificial Agency
  • Action Theory
  • AI-assistants
  • Embodiment
  • Interface AI & Robotics

Marieke Wieringa

PhD Candidate

  Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands (NL)

Contact 

Research areas:

  • Emotional Simulation in Robots and Human Emotional Responses
  • Moral Considerations and Human Reactions to Emotionally Simulating Robots

David Amodio

Ph.D., Associate Professor

New York University Department of Psychology - Social Neuroscience Lab

Contact

Research areas:

  • Social cognition
  • Behavioral regulation
  • Social neuroscience

Join us

In order to become a member please send a request to Catharina Smedegaard at catvs [at] cas.au.dk. We are in the process of changing the presentation of network members, in order to facilitate networking. Please send us the following information: Name, title/occupation, affiliation, research interests (up to 10 keywords and/or 3 lines of text), and a link to a professional or personal webpage. 

As a member you will occasionally receive announcements on workshops, conferences, or publication opportunities. 

Membership is free of charge.