Silvia Kunitz

Papers

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About

Silvia Kunitz is a leading voice in the study of social interaction, with a sharp focus on the intersection of conversation analysis and human-robot interaction (HRI). Her research centers on how people manage turn-taking, repair, and joint decision-making, both among themselves and with artificial agents. In her most-cited work, "Managing Turn-Taking in Human-Robot Interactions" (2023), Kunitz draws on 15 video-recorded sessions of pairs of participants interacting with the social robot Furhat. She reveals how humans systematically orient to violations of normative turn-taking order, demonstrating that even subtle robotic missteps in timing or sequence are treated as accountable by human speakers. This contribution is foundational for designing more responsive, socially intelligent robots. With over 6 citations and growing, Kunitz’s work bridges ethnomethodology and robotics, offering empirical grounding for the development of interactionally competent machines. Her research is essential reading for anyone interested in how we coordinate action with non-human interlocutors, and it positions her as a key figure in the emerging field of multimodal, technology-mediated social interaction.