Haruki Kotani

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About

Haruki Kotani is an emerging researcher whose work sits at the intersection of human-robot interaction, social identity, and robot perception. Kotani's scholarship investigates how people attribute complex human characteristics — particularly gender and national identity — to the visual design of social robots, probing the socio-cultural implications of these perceptual processes. Their most recognized contribution, "Exploring Gender-Expansive Categorization Options for Robots" (2022, 7 citations), critically examines how gender is socially ascribed to robots and challenges the field to more rigorously address gender perception in research design, advocating for more inclusive and expansive frameworks beyond binary categories. Building on this foundation, their 2024 work "From 'Made In' to Mukokuseki" (4 citations) extends this lens to nationality and ethnicity, exploring how visual cues in robot design carry cultural meaning and shape perceptions of national identity. Together, these contributions position Kotani as a thoughtful voice pushing human-robot interaction research toward greater social awareness and methodological rigor. Their work is particularly valuable for researchers and designers grappling with questions of representation, inclusivity, and bias in the development of social robots.