I am a Senior Lecturer in Internet Studies at Curtin University where I am responsible for developing and teaching the introductory unit, Web Communications, and an upper level unit, Writing on the Web. I am also involved, or have been involved, in teaching  Web Media, the Web Development Project and the Digital and Social Media Project unit. I supervise Honours, Masters and PhD research students.

My research is focused on developing a practical and theoretical recognition of, and respect for, otherness and difference in communication. I therefore write about communication theory and practice, and draw upon varied examples—taken from science and technology, science fiction and creative art—to illustrate the ideas in my work. Much of my work to date has explored the communicative possibilities illustrated by human interactions with humanoid and non-humanoid robots, looking to fact and fiction, science and art, for inspiration. My early research was published along with some more recent thinking about human interactions with explosive ordnance disposal robots and robotic floor cleaners) as a book, Robots and Communication, with Palgrave Macmillan in the Pivot series (2015).

I’ve broadened my research to consider creative collaborations with robots, online communication, communication and critical disability studies, driver-car relations (across a range of levels of machine autonomy), and human-machine interactions as a form of play (in video games and with robot musicians).

I maintain a strong interest in examples of human-robot interaction in fact and fiction, as well as human perceptions of autonomous robots that have not been designed specifically to support communication with humans. These machines provide great examples of different forms of communication, as well as appearing within popular cultural texts (thus helping to make them appealing to a wide audience).

My first degree was in Natural Sciences, completed in my country of origin (the UK) a long time ago. I then worked in Information Technology for over ten years before emigrating to Australia.

Dr Eleanor Sandry
Senior Lecturer
Internet Studies
School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry
Curtin University

elsan[at]cantab[dot]net
e.sandry[at]curtin[dot]edu[dot]au
@elsand

2023