Invited Lecture, May 5, 2026
“Robo-Buddhism and Techno-Religion in Japan Today.” Invited public lecture, Japan Foundation, Toronto.
Invited Keynote Lecture, May 4, 2026
“Touching Robots: Research, Risk, Reality.” “Shokkan” (multisensory) Japanese art exhibition, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 4 May.
Invited Lecture, 26 March 2026
“Real-World Robots: Life, Death, Rebirth.” Invited speaker, Bingham Faculty Fellows Symposium, “Being Human in the AI Era,” University of Louisville, Kentucky, 26–27 March.
Invited Lecture, December 6, 2025
“Robo-Buddhism: Religion, Spirituality, and Technology in Japan Today.” Japan Society of New York. The lecture (Zoom) was recorded and uploaded to the Japan Society’s Video Resources for Educators website.
Invited Lecture, October 29, 2025
“’Securitainment’: Robots, Entertainment, and Surveillance Capitalism in Japan.” Invited lecture hosted by Professor Tomomi Yamaguchi, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto.
Invited Lecture/Webinar, November 5, 2024
“50 Ways to Kill a Robot.” Public lecture sponsored by Tokyo College, University of Tokyo.
English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhu4d8vyh3s
Japanese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z39Fzy6_Z3k
Invited Lecture, October 19, 2024
“Can Robots Fix Japan’s Demographic Dilemma?” Invited lecture hosted by the Japan Society of New York. for mainly high school and Japanese language teachers, 19 October, via Zoom. The lecture was recorded and uploaded to the Japan Society’s Video Resources for Educators website.
Invited Lecture, April 10, 2024
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Association for Asian Studies (AAS), North East Asia Council (NEAC) Distinguished Lecture Series:“Robo-Buddhism: Kokoro, Technology, and Spirituality in Japan Today.”
Invited Keynote Lecture, March 11, 2024
Ethnography for HRI: Embodied, Embedded, Messy and Everyday. A workshop hosted at the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Human and Robot Interaction (HRI 2024), Boulder, CO: “Doing Ethnography in Robotland: Warnings and Advice.”
Invited Lecture, February 16, 2024
Carnegie Mellon University, Association for Asian Studies (AAS), North East Asia Council (NEAC) Distinguished Lecture Series: “Robo-Sexism: Designing and Programming Gender in Robots and AI. Perspectives from Japan.”
Webinar: November 27, 2023
Tokyo College, University of Tokyo Public Lecture: “‘Securitainment’: Triangulations of Embodied AI, Entertainment, and Surveillance”
English: https://www.tc.u-
Japanese: https://www.tc.u-
Webinar: March 16 &17, 2023
Emory University The Emerging Technologies and the Future of the Humanities Series: “Emotional Robots and Digital Hormones: Japanese Perspectives on Technology, Religion, and Spirituality”
JR 16 March Emory poster & urls
Webinar: February 20, 2023
Tokyo College, University of Tokyo Public Lecture: Affective (kansei) Robotics in Japan: Designing and Programming Gender in AI and Humanoid Robots”
202301_Robertson_j_0119.jpg
Hybrid Event: April 13, 2022
Princeton University, Annual Marius Jansen Memorial Lecture: “Digital Hormones: Robotics, Emotions, and Techno-Spirituality in Japan”
https://eap.princeton.edu/events/annual-jansen-memorial-lecture-digital-hormones-robotics-emotions-and-techno-spirituality
(cut and paste into browser; Zoom presentation registration possible; recording available)
Hybrid Event: April 22, 2022
Cornell University Lecture: “Robo-Sexism: Gendering AI and Robots in Japan and the United States (and Elsewhere)”
Annual University Lecture (postponed from 2020), open to the public, co-sponsored by the following programs and departments: Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies; Anthropology; Asian Studies; History; Society for the Humanities; East Asia Program; Asian & Asian American Center; China and Asia-Pacific Studies.
https://events.cornell.edu/event/robo-sexism_gendering_ai_and_robots
Webinar: April 6-7, 2022
Keynote Lecture: “Robots, Religion, and Techno-Spirituality in Japan”
Graduate Student Conference, School of Pacific and Asian Studies (SPAS) and Department of Asian Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa: “Technologies and Adaptations: Celebrating Innovations in Human Knowledge Across Asia”