Menu Close
The Conversation

Mark Paterson

1

Article

0

Comments
Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh

I am interested in the history and science of bodily sensation, and technologies of the senses. This has led to collaborations with designers, archaeologists, roboticists, physicists, geographers, and more. I have been involved in research projects on digital heritage, robotics, the human-computer interface, and human-robot interaction design.

Along with articles in social science, humanities, and engineering journals, I have written a number of books including The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies (Routledge, 2007), Seeing with the Hands: Blindness, Vision and Touch After Descartes (Edinburgh UP, 2016), and How We Became Sensorimotor: Movement, Measurement, Sensation (University of Minnesota Press, 2021). I am co-editor of Touching Space, Placing Touch (Routledge, 2012), and of a special issue of ACM Transactions in Human-Robot Interaction (2023), 'Designing the Robot Body: Critical Perspectives on Affective Embodied Interaction'. I am on the Editorial Board of the journals The Senses and Society (since 2008), Emotion, Space and Society (since 2014), and Multimodality & Society (since 2021).

My current research is concerned with the role of embodiment in the histories of human-robot interactions. For more, see http://sensory-motor.com.

Experience

  • 2023–present
    Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh
  • 2007–2011
    Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Exeter, UK
  • 2003–2007
    Lecturer in Philosophy and Cultural Studies, University of the West of England

Education

  • 2002 
    University of Bristol, UK, Human Geography
  • 1996 
    University of Warwick, UK, European Philosophy
  • 1994 
    University of Reading, UK, Philosophy

Publications

  • 2023
    Consumption and Everyday Life (3rd Ed),
  • 2021
    How We Became Sensorimotor: Movement, Measurement, Sensation,
  • 2017
    Consumption and Everyday Life (2nd Ed.),
  • 2016
    Seeing with the Hands: Blindness, Vision & Touch after Descartes,
  • 2012
    Touching Space, Placing Touch, Co-editor, with Martin Dodge
  • 2007
    The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects & Technologies,
  • 2006
    Consumption and Everyday Life,

Professional Memberships

  • International Sociological Association (ISA) Vice-President of TG07
  • Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA)
  • American Sociological Association (ASA)