Norah Dunbar

Norah Dunbar is a Professor of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), with affiliations to the Center for Information, Technology & Society; Center for Responsible Machine Learning; Center for Digital Games Research; and the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences program. Her research focuses on nonverbal communication dynamics, deception detection, and interpersonal power structures, with over $18 million in research funding from agencies like the NSF and DOD. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona (2000).

Dr. Dunbar has published over 100 journal articles and book chapters, with notable contributions in Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and Frontiers in Psychology. Her work explores nonverbal synchrony as a marker of trust and veracity, the role of dominance in relational communication, and automated deception detection systems. Recent projects include studying human-exoskeleton collaboration and the ethical implications of AI-driven behavior analysis.

Her research has been supported by grants such as the NSF-funded $549,000 Cyberlearning project (2015-2017) and a $6.25 million DoD MURI grant (2016-2021). Dunbar has served on editorial boards for 15+ journals and led UCSB's Communication Department. She emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, integrating psychology, computer science, and robotics into communication studies.

• Awards: Fellow of the International Communication Association
• Key Projects: $2.98M NSF Future of Work grant (2018-2023), $6.25M DoD MURI (2016-2021)
• Labs/Teams: Center for Responsible Machine Learning, Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences