Michael Richardson

Michael Richardson serves as a Senior Research Fellow in the School of the Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, specializing in the intersection of media, technology, and cultural politics with emphasis on affective dimensions of violence.

Education

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

His research program critically examines how emerging technologies mediate political violence through frameworks of cultural trauma, affect theory, and witnessing practices. Core investigations span drone warfare systems, algorithmic surveillance, torture testimony, and the emotional economies of media representation in conflict zones, revealing how power operates through embodied affective experiences.

Publications demonstrate sustained engagement with trauma-affect dynamics across literary, visual, and digital media, particularly in contexts of state violence and technological mediation of warfare.

Awards

• Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (2019-2021) for drone witnessing research

Current research is supported by ARC funding for a major project analyzing drone warfare's cultural witnessing practices, examining how unmanned systems transform testimony, memory, and ethical engagement with remote violence.