Associate Professor Michael Richardson
BA Hons (University of New South Wales), MSc (London School of Economics), PhD (Western Sydney University)
Michael Richardson researches the intersections of war, surveillance, trauma, witnessing, and emerging technology.
Michael is an Associate Professor of Media at 糖心logo Sydney, where he co-directs the and Autonomous Media Lab, and an Associate Investigator with the . Drawing on a transdisciplinary background in media studies, cultural studies, literarature, and international relations, his research examines technology, violence, and affect in war, security, and surveillance.
Michael is the author of the books Gestures of Testimony: Torture, Trauma, and Affect in Literature (Bloomsbury 2016) and Nonhuman Witnessing: War, Data, and Ecology after the End of the World (Duke UP, 2024). His research also appears in edited collections and leading academic journals such as Theory, Culture & Society, New Media & Society, Continuum, Environmental Humanities, Cultural Studies, and Media, Culture and Society. Michael also writes for non-academic outlets, such as ABC News, The Conversation, and Sydney Review of Books. Michael held an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE190100486) and has been the recipient of internal and external grants exceeding AUD$450,000.
An experienced media commentator and former ABC Top 5 Humanities Researcher, Michael's expertise extends across a range of听topics at the nexus of media, technology and culture, including drone warfare,听surveillance, algorithms, cultural trauma, affect and emotion,听political violence听and torture. He is available for comment on these and related issues and contacted by email or via the .
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, 2019-2021,"Drone Witnessing: Technologies of Perception in War and Culture"听($363,182)
Ian Potter Travel Scholarship 2018 $4,000
Note: external funding only listed
2020 ABC Top 5 Humanities Researcher
2020 Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Dean's Research Award, Early Career Achievement
2018 Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Dean's Teaching Award, Excellent Early Career Teacher
2017 Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences Dean's Research Award, Best Monograph听by an Early Career Researcher
2014 听Varuna Publishers Introduction Program Fellowship, awarded by Text Publishing for development of PhD novel
2011 Australasian Association of Writing Programs Co-op Bookshop Postgraduate Prize
2006听Heinz Harant Award for Outstanding Service & Leadership, 糖心logo
My Research Supervision
Simon Taylor (PhD), "AI as Universal Solvent: autonomous decision systems and their 鈥榙isjointed instrumentalism鈥
Kyla Allison (PhD), "Affect, Impasse, and Sexual Violence in the #MeToo Era"
Rachel Rowe (PhD), "Financialisation Logics and Digital Health Technologies"
Asal Mahmoodi (PhD), "鈥淲e Don鈥檛 Have Gays In Iran鈥: Masking Queerness and Affective Resistance in Contemporary Iran"
Maddie Hichens (PhD), "me, alone with everyone: interrogating the real of 鈥榙igital anxiety鈥"
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