Elena Knox

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Elena Knox is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of social robotics, gender studies, and cultural anthropology. Her work critically examines how humanoid robots—particularly those assigned feminine aesthetics—are designed, perceived, and ritualized across different cultural contexts. Knox’s most influential paper, “AIBO Robot Mortuary Rites in the Japanese Cultural Context” (31 citations), explores the profound emotional and spiritual bonds between humans and robotic companions, documenting how Japanese temples and shrines perform funeral rites for Sony’s discontinued AIBO robots. This study reveals how pet-like robots are treated as quasi-living beings, raising urgent questions about attachment, grief, and technological animism. In her position paper “Ethical considerations of gendering very humanlike androids” (4 citations), Knox argues that the widespread feminization of humanoid robots perpetuates harmful stereotypes and demands deeper interdisciplinary ethical scrutiny. Her artistic-practice research, including the “Degrees of Freedom” paper (2 citations), documents her direct collaboration with the Actroid-F gynoid, creating six artworks that critique the performance of gendered agency in robotics. Knox’s unique blend of ethnographic fieldwork, critical theory, and creative practice makes her a vital voice in understanding how robots shape—and are shaped by—human culture.