Cathrine Hasse

About

Cathrine Hasse is a pioneering scholar at the intersection of posthumanist learning theory, human-robot interaction, and the anthropology of technology. Her work fundamentally interrogates how emerging technologies — particularly robots and cyborg devices — reshape human identity, professional practice, and the very nature of learning itself. Hasse's most influential contribution is her development of posthumanist learning theory, articulated across several highly cited works, which challenges conventional humanist frameworks by centering the transformative role of technological artefacts in human development. Her concept of "multistable" tools — artefacts that function simultaneously as signs and instruments, actively reshaping professional identities and institutional practices — has proven especially generative, earning her most-cited paper 34 citations and influencing fields from educational theory to robotics design. Drawing on rigorous anthropological fieldwork, Hasse demonstrates how robots are not passive instruments but active agents that expose cultural tensions between makers and users, challenging institutions in profound ways. Her ethnographic methodology has also been recognized for its value in surfacing ethical, legal, and societal dimensions of robotic integration. Spanning philosophy, anthropology, and technology studies, Hasse's scholarship offers students and researchers an essential, nuanced framework for understanding what it truly means to learn and work alongside intelligent machines.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Artefacts that talk: Mediating technologies as multistable signs and tools

   34 citations · 2013
2. 2
   Posthumanist Learning

   29 citations · 2019
3. 3
   How robots challenge institutional practices

   17 citations · 2018
4. 4
   Posthuman learning: AI from novice to expert?

   16 citations · 2018
5. 5
   Posthumanist Learning: What Robots and Cyborgs Teach us About Being Ultra-social

   15 citations · 2019
6. 6
   Humanism, Posthumanism, and New Humanism: How Robots Challenge the Anthropological Object

   14 citations · 2022
7. 7
   Studying Social Robots in Practiced Places

   11 citations · 2015
8. 8
   Designing Robots, Designing Humans

   11 citations · 2019
9. 9
   The Vitruvian robot

   9 citations · 2017
10. 10
    The Use of Ethnography to Identify and Address Ethical, Legal, and Societal (ELS) Issues

    9 citations · 2018

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links