Jennifer Robertson’s Robo Sapiens Japanicus: Robots, Gender, Family, and the Japanese Nation assesses the robot phenomenon in Japan within the last decade. Offering sustained critiques on contemporary techno-fix narratives, Robertson reveals how humanoid robots are designed and deployed to reify conservative values under the guise of technological advancements. Robertson’s impressive ethnographic project weaves together robots of science fact and fiction, leaving readers to interrogate how humanoids, androids, gynoids, and cyborgs both challenge and reify existing social structures across the globe.
Articles by Sara Wenger
Sara Wenger is a third-year PhD candidate in Political and Social Thought at Virginia Tech. She earned an MA in Women’s Studies from the University of Alabama. Her scholarly interests include Black speculative fiction, feminist technoscience, and sex technologies.