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Associate Professor Michael Richardson

Associate Professor Michael Richardson

Associate Professor

BA Hons (University of New South Wales), MSc (London School of Economics), PhD (Western Sydney University)

Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA)
School of the Arts and Media

Michael Richardson researches the intersections of war, surveillance, trauma, witnessing, and emerging technology.

Michael is an Associate Professor of Media at UNSW Sydney, where he co-directs the Media Futures Hub and Autonomous Media Lab, and an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence on Automated Decision-Making + Society. 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 topics at the nexus of media, technology and culture, including drone warfare, surveillance, algorithms, cultural trauma, affect and emotion, political violence and torture. He is available for comment on these and related issues and contacted by email or via the UNSW Newsroom.
Phone
+61-2-9385 8531
E-mail
michael.richardson@unsw.edu.au
Location
231C Robert Webster
  • Books | 2018
    2018, Trauma and Literature, Kurtz JR, (ed.), Cambridge University Press, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781316817155
    Books | 2016
    Richardson M, 2016, Gestures of Testimony Torture, Trauma, and Affect in Literature, Bloomsbury Academic
  • Book Chapters | 2023
    Richardson M, 2023, 'Algorithmic Trauma', in Seigworth GJ; Pedwell C (ed.), The Affect Theory Reader 2: Worldings, Tensions, Futures, Duke University Press, pp. 423 - 445, http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9781478027201-021
    Book Chapters | 2022
    Richardson M, 2022, 'Military Virtues and the Limits of ‘Ethics’ in AI Research', in Economies of Virtue: The Circulation of 'Ethics' in AI Research, Institute of Network Cultures, pp. 123 - 137, https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/economies-of-virtue-the-circulation-of-ethics-in-ai/
    Book Chapters | 2020
    RICHARDSON M, 2020, 'Of Games and Drones:', in Remote Warfare, University of Minnesota Press, pp. 127 - 152, http://dx.doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv17db42n.9
    Book Chapters | 2020
    Richardson M, 2020, 'Embodiment and Affect', in After the Human, Cambridge University Press, pp. 58 - 71, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108874427.005
    Book Chapters | 2019
    Richardson M; Allison K, 2019, 'Affect and the Unsaid: Silences, Impasses, and Testimonies to Trauma', in Murray AJ; Durrheim K (ed.), Qualitative Studies of Silence, Cambridge University Press, pp. 236 - 253, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108345552.014
    Book Chapters | 2019
    Richardson M; Schankweiler K, 2019, 'Affective Witnessing', in Slaby J; Von Scheve C (ed.), Affective Societies Key Concepts, Routledge, pp. 166 - 177
    Book Chapters | 2018
    , 2018, 'Trauma and Literature', in Kurtz JR (ed.), , Cambridge University Press, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781316817155
    Book Chapters | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'Drone's-Eye View: Affective Witnessing and Technicities of Perception', in Image Testimonies Witnessing in Times of Social Media, Routledge, pp. 64 - 74, https://login.wwwproxy1.library.unsw.edu.au/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1984663&site=ehost-live&scope=site&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_72
    Book Chapters | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'Terrorism: Trauma in the Excess of Affect', in Trauma and Literature, Cambridge University Press, pp. 320 - 333
    Book Chapters | 2018
    2018, 'Drone’s-eye view', in Richardson M (ed.), Image Testimonies, Routledge, pp. 72 - 86, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429434853-6
    Book Chapters | 2016
    Richardson MA, 2016, 'Surveillance Publics After Edward Snowden', in Lee K; Marshall DP; D'Cruz G; Macdonald S (ed.), Contemporary Publics : Shifting Boundaries in New Media, Technology and Culture, Palsgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 163 - 180
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Richardson MA; Atkinson M, 2013, 'Introduction: At the Nexus', in Richardson M; Atkinson M (ed.), Traumatic Affect, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, UK, pp. 1 - 19
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Richardson MA, 2013, 'Torturous Affect: Writing and the Problem of Pain', in Richardson MA; Atkinson M (ed.), Traumatic Affect, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, UK, pp. 148 - 170
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Richardson MA, 2013, 'Writing Torture’s Remnants', in Collins CA; Clark JE (ed.), Speaking the Unspeakable, Inter-Disciplinary Press, Freeland, UK
  • Edited Books | 2013
    Atkinson M; Richardson M, 2013, Traumatic Affect, Cambridge Scholars Publishing
  • Journal articles | 2024
    Jackman A; Richardson M; Veber M, 2024, 'Where are the pandemic drones? On the ‘failure’ of automated aerial solutionism', New Media and Society, 26, pp. 1183 - 1203, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14614448231202137
    Journal articles | 2024
    Richardson M, 2024, 'From the archives of drone failure', Cultural Studies, 38, pp. 697 - 699, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2021.1905676
    Journal articles | 2023
    Ford H; Richardson M, 2023, 'Framing data witnessing: Airwars and the production of authority in conflict monitoring', Media, Culture and Society, 45, pp. 805 - 821, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01634437221147631
    Journal articles | 2023
    Pinchevski A; Richardson M, 2023, 'Trauma and digital media: Introduction to crosscurrents special section', Media, Culture and Society, 45, pp. 178 - 180, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01634437221122244
    Journal articles | 2023
    Richardson M; Munster A, 2023, 'Pluralising the Planetary: The Radical Incompleteness of Machinic Envisioning', Media+Environment, 5, http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/001c.87980
    Journal articles | 2023
    Richardson M; Schnepf JD, 2023, 'Home Drone: How to Militarize the Smart Home with the Ring Always Home Camera', Catalyst Feminism Theory Technoscience, 9, http://dx.doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v9i1.38355
    Journal articles | 2023
    Richardson M; Zolkos M, 2023, 'Witnessing the Anthropocene', Angelaki - Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 28, pp. 3 - 12, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2023.2233792
    Journal articles | 2023
    Richardson M, 2023, 'Drone trauma: violent mediation and remote warfare', Media, Culture and Society, 45, pp. 202 - 211, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/01634437221122257
    Journal articles | 2022
    Fish A; Richardson M, 2022, 'Drone Power: Conservation, Humanitarianism, Policing and War', Theory, Culture and Society, 39, pp. 3 - 26, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02632764211022828
    Journal articles | 2022
    Richardson M; Zolkos M, 2022, 'WITNESSING AFTER THE HUMAN', Angelaki, 27, pp. 3 - 16, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0969725x.2022.2046355
    Journal articles | 2022
    Richardson M, 2022, 'How to witness a drone strike', Digital War, 3, pp. 38 - 52, http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s42984-022-00048-3
    Journal articles | 2021
    Brooks A; Richardson M, 2021, 'On Witnessing a Riot', Lateral, http://dx.doi.org/10.25158/l10.2.8
    Journal articles | 2020
    Richardson M; Schankweiler K, 2020, 'Introduction: Affective Witnessing as Theory and Practice', Parallax, 26, pp. 235 - 253, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2021.1883301
    Journal articles | 2020
    Richardson M, 2020, 'Drone cultures: encounters with everyday militarisms', Continuum, 34, pp. 858 - 869, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2020.1842125
    Journal articles | 2020
    Richardson M, 2020, 'Witnessing the Anthropocene: affect and the problem of scale', Parallax, 26, pp. 339 - 359, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2021.1883298
    Journal articles | 2019
    Richardson M, 2019, 'Predictive Killing: Drone War and Algorithmic Opacities', Infrastructural Inequalities, 1, https://infrastructuralinequalities.net/issue-1/predictive-killing/?pdf=455
    Journal articles | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'Climate Trauma, or the Affects of the Catastrophe to Come', Environmental Humanities, 10, pp. 1 - 19, http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/22011919-4385444
    Journal articles | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'Drone Capitalism', Transformations, 31, pp. 79 - 97, http://www.transformationsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Trans31_05_richardson.pdf
    Journal articles | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'There's Something Going On', Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry, 1, pp. 149 - 154, http://capaciousjournal.com/past-issues/vol-1-no-2-2018/
    Journal articles | 2017
    Richardson M, 2017, 'Ghosting politics: Speechwriters, speechmakers and the (re)crafting of identity', Cultural Studies Review, 23, pp. 3 - 17, http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/csr.v23i2.5472
    Journal articles | 2017
    Richardson M, 2017, 'Radical absence: encountering traumatic affect in digitally mediated disappearance', Cultural Studies, 32, pp. 63 - 80, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2017.1394342
    Journal articles | 2017
    Richardson M, 2017, 'The disgust of Donald Trump', Continuum, 31, pp. 747 - 756, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2017.1370077
    Journal articles | 2017
    Richardson MA, 2017, 'Resonances of the Negative: Traumatic Affect and Empty Spaces of Writing', TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Programs, http://www.textjournal.com.au/speciss/issue42/Richardson.pdf
    Journal articles | 2014
    Richardson MA, 2014, '"Every Moment is Two Moments": Witnessing and the Poetics of Trauma in Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels', Journal of Literature and Trauma Studies, 3, pp. 81 - 99, http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jlt.2014.0021
    Journal articles | 2013
    Richardson M, 2013, 'Writing Trauma: Affected in the Act', NEW WRITING-THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR THE PRACTICE AND THEORY OF CREATIVE WRITING, 10, pp. 154 - 162, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14790726.2012.725748
    Journal articles | 2012
    Richardson MA, 2012, 'Who Speaks? Torture and the Ethics of Voice', TEXT Journal, 16, http://www.textjournal.com.au/april12/richardson.htm
  • Preprints | 2021
    Richardson M; Fish A, 2021, Drone Power: Conservation, Humanitarianism, Policing and War, http://dx.doi.org/10.33767/osf.io/9nk3y
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'Affective Witnessing, Mediatised Trauma and the Figure of the Drone', presented at Australasian Society for Continental Society, Western Sydney University, 21 November 2018 - 21 November 2019
    Conference Posters | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'Drone Culture', Sydney, presented at Australian Academy of the Humanities Annual Symposium, Sydney, 14 November 2018 - 16 November 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'On the Non-Human Witness: Affects, Technologies, Mediations', presented at Capacious: Affect Inquiry / Making Space, Millersville University (USA), 08 August 2018 - 11 August 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Richardson M, 2018, 'Patterns of Life and Predictive Killings', presented at 4S, Sydney, 29 August 2018 - 01 September 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2015
    Richardson MA, 2015, 'Criticism Beyond Judgment: Reading, Writing and the Affective Turn', presented at Writing & Society Research Centre Seminar Series, Western Sydney University, 11 September 2015 - 11 September 2015
    Conference Presentations | 2015
    Richardson MA, 2015, 'Encountering Radical Absence: Traumatic Affect and Digitally Mediated Disappearance', presented at Affect Theory Conference, Millersville University, PA, 14 October 2015 - 17 October 2015
    Conference Presentations | 2015
    Richardson MA, 2015, 'Finding Your Academic Voice', presented at Creative Ecologies, Western Sydney University, 16 September 2015 - 18 September 2015
    Conference Presentations | 2015
    Richardson MA, 2015, 'Ghosts in the Political Machine: Speechwriters, Leaders and the (Re)crafting of Identity', presented at Australasian Association of Writing Programs 20th Annual Conference, Swinbourne University, 29 November 2015 - 01 December 2015
    Conference Presentations | 2015
    Richardson MA, 2015, 'Guantánamo’s Poets: Minor Writings from the State of Exception', presented at Cultural Studies Association of Australia, Melbourne University, 30 November 2015 - 03 December 2015
    Conference Presentations | 2015
    Richardson MA, 2015, 'Literary Hacks: Secrets, Networks and Abstractions in Thomas Pynchon and Haruki Murakami', presented at Literary Studies Convention, University of Wollongong, 07 July 2015 - 11 July 2015
    Conference Presentations | 2015
    Richardson MA, 2015, 'Moving Secrets: Edward Snowden and the Fluid Hidden', presented at Cultural Studies Association of Australia, University of Wollongong, 03 December 2015 - 05 December 2015
    Conference Presentations | 2014
    Richardson MA, 2014, 'Affect, Critical Reading and the Embodied Self', presented at Literature & Affect: Australasian Association for Literature Conference, Melbourne University, 01 July 2014 - 04 July 2014
    Conference Presentations | 2014
    Richardson MA, 2014, 'The Indeterminacy of Affect', presented at Literature and Affect: Australasian Association for Literature Conference, Melbourne University, 01 July 2014 - 04 July 2014
    Conference Presentations | 2014
    Richardson MA, 2014, 'Theorizing Surveillance Publics', presented at Contemporary Publics International Symposium, Deakin University, 24 February 2014 - 25 February 2014
    Conference Presentations | 2013
    Richardson MA, 2013, 'Genre, Form & Tradition in the Creative Arts Exegesis (Panel Discussion)', presented at Creative Ecologies 2013, Western Sydney University, 23 September 2013 - 26 September 2013
    Conference Presentations | 2013
    Richardson MA, 2013, 'Getting Published (Panel Discussion)', presented at Interventions & Intersections, Western Sydney University, 26 June 2013 - 28 June 2013
    Conference Presentations | 2013
    Richardson MA, 2013, 'Paranoid City: Fear, Frenzy and Sacrifice in Richard Flanagan’s The Unknown Terrorist', presented at Association for the Study of Australian Literature, Charles Sturt University, Wagga, 03 July 2013 - 05 July 2013
    Conference Presentations | 2013
    Richardson MA, 2013, 'Reading Torture’s Pain, Writing the State of Exception', presented at Interventions & Intersections, Western Sydney University, 26 June 2013 - 28 June 2013
    Conference Presentations | 2012
    Richardson MA, 2012, 'Facing the Aesthetics of Affective Violence in Incendies', presented at Cultural Studies Association of Australia, Sydney University, 04 December 2012 - 06 December 2012
    Conference Presentations | 2012
    Richardson MA, 2012, 'Torturous Affect: Writing and the Problem of Pain', presented at Violence Studies Conference, University of Newcastle, 21 August 2012 - 23 August 2012
    Conference Presentations | 2012
    Richardson MA, 2012, 'Who Speaks? Torture and the Ethics of Voice', presented at Writing & Society Research Centre Seminar Series, Western Sydney University, 23 March 2012 - 23 March 2012
    Conference Presentations | 2012
    Richardson MA, 2012, 'Writing Torture: Notes from Creative Practice', presented at Torture & Sovereignty Symposium, Western Sydney University, 07 September 2012 - 08 September 2012
    Conference Presentations | 2012
    Richardson MA, 2012, 'Writing Trauma: Affected in the Act', presented at Great Writing Conference, Imperial College, London, 16 June 2012 - 17 June 2012
    Conference Presentations | 2012
    Richardson MA, 2012, 'Writings from the State of Exception', presented at Australasian Association of Writing Programs 17th Annual Conference, Deakin University, Geelong, 26 November 2012 - 27 November 2012
    Conference Presentations | 2011
    Richardson MA, 2011, 'Torturous Affect: Writing and the Problem of Pain', presented at Trauma: Writing, Art & Affect, Western Sydney University, 27 April 2011 - 27 April 2011
    Conference Presentations | 2011
    Richardson MA, 2011, 'Who Speaks? Torture and the Ethics of Voice', presented at Australasian Association of Writing Programs 16th Annual Conference, Byron Bay, 23 November 2011 - 25 November 2011
    Conference Papers | 2011
    Richardson MA, 2011, 'Writing Torture’s Remnants: Sovereign Power, Affect and the War on Terror', in Barrette C; Haylock B; Mortimer D (eds.), Trauma Imprints: Performance, Art, Literature and Theoretical Practice, Inter-Disciplinary Press, Prague, presented at Trauma: Theory & Practice, Prague, 14 March 2011 - 16 March 2011
    Conference Presentations | 2011
    Richardson MA, 2011, 'Writing Torture’s Remnants: Sovereign Power, Affect and the War on Terror', presented at Trauma: Theory & Practice, Prague, 14 March 2011 - 16 March 2011
    Conference Presentations | 2010
    Richardson MA, 2010, 'Torture, Bodies and Narratives in the War on Terror', presented at Writing & Society Research Centre Seminar Series, Western Sydney University, 29 October 2010 - 29 October 2010

Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, 2019-2021,"Drone Witnessing: Technologies of Perception in War and Culture" ($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 by an Early Career Researcher

2014  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 Heinz Harant Award for Outstanding Service & Leadership, UNSW

My Research Supervision

Simon Taylor (PhD), "AI as Universal Solvent: autonomous decision systems and their ‘disjointed instrumentalism’

Kyla Allison (PhD), "Affect, Impasse, and Sexual Violence in the #MeToo Era"

Rachel Rowe (PhD), "Financialisation Logics and Digital Health Technologies"

Asal Mahmoodi (PhD), "“We Don’t Have Gays In Iran”: Masking Queerness and Affective Resistance in Contemporary Iran"

Maddie Hichens (PhD), "me, alone with everyone: interrogating the real of ‘digital anxiety’"