Research Projects
Current Project: Automated Empathy – Globalising International Standards (AEGIS) (Supported by RAI UK/UKRI)
Critically Envisioning Biometric AI Futures, The University of Edinburgh and UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub (Supported by UKRI).
Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ethics & Policing in North Wales: Establishing Citizens’ Perspectives, Bangor University. (Supported by BU Impact Accelerator)
Emotional AI in Cities: Cross Cultural Lessons from UK and Japan on Designing for An Ethical Life, Bangor University. (Supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, ES/T00696X/1, in conjunction with the Japan Science and Technology fund)
Asset-based Storytelling in Kingston, Kingston University and Kingston Libraries. (Supported by Arts Council England)
Taking Back Control of Our Personal Data: An ethical impact assessment of personal data storage apps, Bangor University. (Supported by Innovate UK)
Living with Uncertainty, The Open University. (Supported by the Economic and Social Research Council)
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Publications
Bakir, V., Laffer, A., McStay, D., Miranda, D., & Urquhart, L. (2024). On manipulation by emotional AI: UK adults’ views and governance implications. Frontiers in Sociology, Sec. Sociology of Emotion, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2024.1339834
Bakir, V., Laffer, A., & McStay, A. (forthcoming). Combatting the digital influence industry within surveillance capitalism: The potentials and pitfalls of personal information management systems. In E. L. Briant & V. Bakir (Eds.), Routledge handbook of the influence industry. Routledge.
Bakir, V., Laffer, A., & McStay, A. (2023). Blurring the moral limits of data markets: Biometrics, emotion and data dividends. AI & Society. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01739-5
Bakir, V., Laffer, A., & McStay, A. (2023). Human-first, please: Assessing citizen views and industrial ambition for emotional AI in recommender systems. Surveillance & Society, 21(2), 205-222. https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/index
Laffer, A. (2023). Using citizen focus groups to examine attitudes towards emotional AI: Design, diversity and ethics [Video]. SAGE Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529627848
Laffer, A. (2022). Using an online narrative approach to explore diverse participants' understanding of emerging technology: Citizen’s perspectives on living with emotional AI. SAGE Research Methods: Doing Online Research. https://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781529604122
Bakir, V., Ghotbi, N., Ho, T. M., Laffer, A., Mantello, P., McStay, A., Miranda, D., Miyashita, H., Podoletz, L., Tanaka, H., & Urquhart, L. (2022). Emotional AI in cities: Cross-cultural lessons from the UK and Japan on designing for an ethical life. In Machine learning and the city: Applications in architecture and urban design (pp. 621–624). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119815075.ch51
Urquhart, L., Laffer, A., & Miranda, D. (2022). Working with affective computing: Exploring UK public perceptions of AI enabled workplace surveillance. In Proceedings of Ethicomp 2022, University of Turku. Pp. 164-177. (ISBN 978-951-29-8989-8)
Laffer, A. (2021). When readers talk about characters as if they were real, how do they talk about them? Empathy and gossip in reading group discourse. Poetics, 85(101503), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2020.101503
Laffer, A. (2021). (Im/E)Migration: A Critical making Project. The Digital Review, 1. https://doi.org/10.7273/82k7-cc75
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Project Outputs
Laffer, A. (2023). Critical biometric and AI futures: Twine narratives for citizen workshops. https://biometricai.neocities.org/
Laffer, A., & Chatzichristodoulou, M. (2023). A community storytelling toolkit. Kingston University.
Laffer, A. (2022). Attitudes towards emotional artificial intelligence use: Transcripts of citizen workshops collected using an innovative narrative approach, 2021. [Data collection]. UK Data Service. http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-855688
Laffer, A. (2021). Emotional AI in cities: A Twine narrative for citizen workshops. https://eaitwine.neocities.org/
Bakir, V., McStay, A., & Laffer, A. (2021). UK attitudes towards personal data stores and control over personal data, 2021. [Data collection]. UK Data Service. http://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-855178
Cameron, L., & Weatherbed, S. (2014). Empathy dynamics in conflict transformation: A manual. (As contributor)
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Doctoral Thesis
Laffer, A. (2016). A poetics of empathy: Discussion of migrants in and around a work of fiction. The Open University.
Research Reports
Urquhart, L., Miranda, D., Connon, I., & Laffer, A. (2023). Critically envisioning biometric artificial intelligence in law enforcement. The University of Edinburgh.
Laffer, A., & Chatzichristodoulou, M. (2023). Evaluating asset-based storytelling in Kingston. Kingston University.
Bakir, V., Laffer, A., & McStay, A. (2021). Taking back control of our personal data: An ethical impact assessment of personal data storage apps. Bangor University.
Laffer, A., & Anderson, C. (2021). Discourses of lockdown: A qualitative analysis and comparison of media coverage of Lockdown 2 and 3. DHA Communications, Liverpool.
Laffer, A. (2018). A space for all: A mixed-methods research project into commercial foyer users. Southbank Centre, London.
Laffer, A. (2017). ‘My Southbank Centre’: A qualitative research project into visitor awareness and impact. Southbank Centre, London.
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Conference Papers
Andres, F., Bakir, V., Bland, B., Laffer, A., Li, P., Miranda, D., McStay, A., & Urquhart, L. (2024). How to live well with emotional AI and empathetic technologies. NII Open House. National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.29708.73604
Laffer, A., & Chatzichristodoulou, M. (2023). ‘Storytelling is a little cove, where the waves don’t buffet you’: Agency, integration, and empathy in a community storytelling project. Describing Exclusion, Writing Inclusion in the 21st Century. IETT - Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University, Lyon, France.
Chatzichristodoulou, M., Laffer, A., Neville, R., & Tarn, F. (2023). (Panel) Distributed leadership in a community storytelling project. The Power of Collaborative Action III: Leading the Future of Cultural Knowledge Exchange. National Centre for Academic and Cultural Exchange.
Laffer, A. (2021). New ways of writing: Affordances of digital technology. Questioning the Givens of Academic Writing. Oxford Brookes University.
Laffer, A. (2019). Representations of migration in The Boat and The Boat: Affordances for empathy across print and digital fiction. Stylistics without Borders: Poetics and Linguistics Association. University of Liverpool.
Laffer, A. (2016). Taking a triangular approach to literary study: Incorporating data from author, text and reader. Style and Response: Minds, Media, Methods. Sheffield Hallam University.
Laffer, A. (2013). Conflicted positioning: How readers discuss a fictional asylum seeker. Reading in Conflict. The Open University.
Laffer, A. (2012). ‘Clear blue water’ between the author and reader: Can metaphor use be considered deliberate in the production of literature? Poetics and Linguistics Association. University of Malta.
Laffer, A. (2012). ‘I wish I was a British pound coin’: Metaphoric and non-metaphoric interaction in The Other Hand. Researching and Applying Metaphor International Association. Lancaster University.
Laffer, A. (2011). The poetics of empathy. Reading Mediated Minds, CCCT Summer School. University of Amsterdam.
Laffer, A. (2011). Metaphor as a marker of empathy in The Other Hand: Emotion, identification and beyond. Empathy in the Verbal and Visual Arts. The Open University. [Conference organizer and host]
Laffer, A. (2011). On The Other Hand: Software derived analysis versus manual identification. Researching and Applying Metaphor International Association. Almagro.
Laffer, A. (2011). Empathy in reading groups: How the reader engages with the text, fictional characters and other readers. Literary Reading: Research Seminar. The Open University.
Laffer, A. (2010). The poetics of empathy: How popular fiction can influence attitudes across social group differences. Poetics and Linguistics Association. University of Genoa.
Laffer, A. (2010). Empathy in reading groups: How readers relate to fictional characters. The Arts and Their Audiences: Interdisciplinary Symposium. The Open University.
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