Anne Cranny‐Francis

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Anne Cranny-Francis is a pioneering scholar at the intersection of gender studies, cultural theory, and human-robot interaction. Her research critically examines how emerging technologies—particularly robotics and AI—are shaped by, and in turn reshape, understandings of gender, sexuality, and intimacy. In her most-cited work, "Is data a toaster? Gender, sex, sexuality and robots" (2016, 24 citations), she interrogates the ethical debates surrounding sex robots, challenging reductive binaries and advocating for nuanced analyses of intimacy with machines. Her monograph "Robots, androids, aliens, and others: The erotics and politics of science fiction film" (2015) extends this inquiry into popular culture, exploring how science fiction narratives encode and contest power dynamics around embodiment and desire. Cranny-Francis’s contributions are vital for students and researchers navigating the ethical and social implications of robotics, offering a critical framework that foregrounds gender and sexuality as central to technological design and discourse. Her work has influenced not only gender studies but also the burgeoning field of human-robot ethics, making her a key voice in debates about the future of human-machine relationships.