Associate Professor Michael Richardson

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.