Autumn Edwards is Professor of Communication at Western Michigan University, where she co-directs the Communication & Social Robotics Labs (combotlabs.org). She is a Theodore von Kármán Fellow at RWTH Aachen University and a University Distinguished Teacher at Western Michigan University, the institution’s highest award for instructional excellence.
Edwards is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal Human-Machine Communication and a key figure in the development of the subfield of Human-Machine Communication (HMC). Her research focuses on human-machine communication, human-robot interaction, artificial sociality, and the ontological and communicative expectations people bring to interactions with social robots and artificial interlocutors.
She has authored over 80 research articles and book chapters, and her books include The Communication Age: Connecting and Engaging (SAGE), Communication Is…: Perspectives on Theory (co-edited with Adam Tyma), and the forthcoming DeGruyter Handbook of Robots in Society and Culture (2024, co-edited with Leopoldina Fortunati).
In 2020, Edwards was recognized by Women in Robotics as one of “30 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About” for her contributions to understanding communication with artificial partners.
