Introducing the FUS Faculty: Satomi Sugiyama

Chair of the Academic Division of Communication, History and Politics
Professor, Communication and Media Studies

Ph.D. Rutgers University, USA
M.A. Wake Forest University, USA
B.A. Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

Office: Lowerre Academic Center, Office 9
Phone: +41 91 986 36 57
Email: ssugiyama@fus.edu

Satomi Sugiyama is Professor of Communication and Media Studies. She received her PhD in Communication Studies at Rutgers University with her dissertation on mobile communication and fashion. Her research and teaching interests include emerging communication technologies and interpersonal relationships, culture, and fashion studies. Her work has been published in such journals as New Media and Society, Fashion Theory, First Monday, and International Journal of Social Robotics, as well as in edited books by Springer, Peter Lang, and Transaction. Sugiyama received MacArthur and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships at Colgate University while completing her PhD at Rutgers University. She also received an international exploratory workshop grant from the Swiss National Foundation in order to initiate a collaborative exploration of the notion of social robots and ICTs. The workshop led to further international collaborations across disciplines including a COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) workshop on social robotics. She is member of euRobotics topic group "socially intelligent robots and societal applications" and is presently conducting research on perceptions toward social robots. Her current research also includes an investigation into images of wearable technologies and the emoji use among youth. In recent years, she served as a thesis jury member and a guest lecturer for the Master of Advanced Studies in Interaction Design, SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland. She is on the editorial board of Human-Machine Communication as well as intervalla: platform for intellectual exchange.

2024-2025 Courses

COM 199	I am the Portal: Mobile Media and Me in the Connected Everyday Life	FALL 2024
What kind of mobile media do you use? In what ways do you use them? How significant are they in your everyday life? In this first year seminar, we will examine the role mobile media play in our everyday life. The course will begin by developing the basic disciplinary understanding of communication and media studies, and then move on to the essential sociological/communicative questions of mobile communication studies (e.g., self and relationships, community, space, time, culture). We will also delve into some of the emerging mobile media trends such as mobile games. Ultimately, we will reflect upon our own relationship with our own mobile device. Have you domesticated your mobile device into yourself? Are you the portal? Like all First Year Seminars, this course will cultivate the fundamental critical and academic skills necessary for succeeding in college.
COM 230T	Communication, Fashion, and the Formation of Taste (Italy)	FALL 2024
The sense of taste, whether it refers to the metaphorical sense of taste (aesthetic discrimination) or the literal sense of taste (gustatory taste), is a fundamental part of human experiences. This Academic Travel course examines various ways that communication processes shape our sense of taste in the contemporary society. It will explore topics such as the taste for food, clothing and accessories, music, and other cultural activities applying key theories and concepts of communication, fashion, and taste. Ultimately, the course seeks to develop an understanding of how interpersonal, intercultural, and mediated communication in our everyday life plays a critical role in the formation of individual taste as well as collective taste. In order to achieve this objective, field observations and site visits will be planned during the Academic Travel period.
COM 350	Mediated Relationships	FALL 2024
This course examines the impact of emerging communication technologies on human communication. By critically examining current theories and research in the field, students will analyze present and future of technologically-mediated relationships as these pervade their everyday life.
COM 105	Introduction to Communication and Media	SPRING 2025
This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts and theories of communication and media studies as they apply to the ever-increasing intercultural interactions of a contemporary world. In particular, students will learn the basics of intercultural/international communication processes, gaining a foundation for developing intercultural communication competence.
COM 497	Senior Research Seminar in Communication	SPRING 2025
This seminar provides students with a capstone experience in synthesizing their theoretical and methodological knowledge in the form of a high-quality research paper. Some of the major areas of research and theories in the field of communication and media studies will be reviewed and discussed in class as students work on their own research project. At the end of the semester, students will present their final research paper to an audience of students and professors. Students will also be encouraged to submit their paper to an appropriate conference venue around the world. (Prerequisite: Senior status)
COM 295	Media Consumption, Fashion, and Identity	SUMMER 2025
This course examines how people, particularly young people, consume media technologies and their contents in contemporary media-saturated life. Employing essential readings on media consumption, fashion, and identity as the theoretical backbone, students will engage in active site-based research project throughout the course. By offering an opportunity to undertake a field study in Milan, the course seeks to develop in-depth theoretical knowledge of the intersections of media consumption, fashion, and identity, as well as to cultivate critical reflection of students’ own consumption of media technologies. This course carries an additional fee for transportation and related activities in Milan.

Publications:

Sugiyama, S. (2021). The Apparatgeist of Pepper-kun: An exploration of emerging cultural meanings of a social robot in Japan. In J. E. Katz, J. Floyd, & K. Schiepers (eds.), Perceiving the Future through New Communication Technologies: Robots, AI and Everyday Life. Palgrave-Macmillan (pp. 113-128).

Sugiyama, S. (2019). Human-Social Robot Interactions: From a Communication and Media Studies Perspective. In C. Linke, & I. Scholte (eds.), Integrative Perspectives on the Change of Mediated Interpersonal Communication. Springer.

Steinert-Borella, S., & Sugiyama, S. (2019). Introduction: Questions of Taste. intervalla: platform for intellectual exchange, 7, 1-5

Sugiyama, S. (2018). The Emoji and the Management of Social Boundaries. intervalla: platform for intellectual exchange, 6, 19-33.

Sugiyama, S. (2019). Wearable technologies: Fashion, size and visibility. InA. Mascio, R. Menarini, S. Reinach, & I. Tolic (Eds). The Size Effect: Measuring Design, Fashion and Media (pp. 99-108). Mimesis International.

Barile, N., & Sugiyama, S. (2018). Wearing Data: From McLuhan’s “Extended Skin” to the Integration Between Wearable Technologies and a New Algorithmic Sensibility. Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture. DOI: 10.1080/1362704X.2018.1514847

Sugiyama, S. (2018). Exploration of expected interaction norms with a social robot in everyday life: A case of twitter analysis in Japan (long abstract). M. Funk et al. (Eds). Envisioning Robots in Society—Politics, Power, and Public Space. IOS Press Ebooks.

Sugiyama, S. (2017). The image of wearable ICTs: an exploration from a fashion perspective. In G. Motta, & A. Biagini (Eds.), Fashion through History: Costumes, Symbols, Communication (vol. II). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.

Barile, N., & Sugiyama, S. (2016). I am Her(e): Physical/cognitive robots and human intimacy in the imagery of Spike Jonze’s movies. In J. Seibt, M. Nørskov, & S. S. Andersen (Eds.), What social robots can and should do (pp. 335 – 339). IOS Press Ebooks. DOI 10.3233/978-1-61499-708-5-335

Sugiyama, S. (2015). Kawaii meiru and Maroyaka neko: Mobile emoji for relationship maintenance and aesthetic expressions among Japanese teens. First Monday, 20 (10), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5210/fm.v20i10.5826

Pfadenhauer, M., Sugiyama, S., & Ess, C. M. (2015). Special issue of IJSR on social robots: Form, content, critique. International Journal of Social Robotics. 10.1007/s12369-015-0291-1

Barile, N., & Sugiyama, S. (2015). The automation of taste: A theoretical exploration of mobile ICTs and social robots in the context of music consumption. International Journal of Social Robotics. 10.1007/s12369-015-0283-1

Ess, C., Sugiyama, S., Sandry, E., & Pfadenhauer, M. (2014). Communication - Theoretical issues in social robotics. In J. Seibt, R. Hakli, & M. Nørskov (eds.), Sociable Robots and the Future of Social Relations: Proceedings of Robo-Philosophy 2014 (pp. 153-156). Amsterdam: IOS Press BV.

Sugiyama, S. (2013). Melding with the self, melding with relational partners, and turning into a quasi-social robot. A Japanese case study of people's experiences of emotion and mobile devices. intervalla: platform for intellectual exchange, 1, 71-84.

Sugiyama, S., & Vincent, J. (2013). Social robots and emotion: transcending the boundary between humans and ICTs. intervalla: platform for intellectual exchange, 1, 1-6.

Sugiyama, S. (2013). The Muted Mobile in Tokyo. In S. Tosoni, M. Tarantino, & Giaccardi (Eds.), Media and the City: Urbanism, Technology, and Communication, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.

Sugiyama, S. (2011). "Interpersonal communication beyond geographical constraints: A case of college students who maintain geographically dispersed relationships." In R. Ling & S. W. Campbell (Eds.), Mobile Communication Research Annual Volume II: Bringing Us Together or Tearing Us Apart? (pp. 271-292). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

Sugiyama, S (2010). "Seeking equilibrium: A study of how college students with diverse cultural backgrounds experience mobile communication in everyday life." Encyclopaideia: Journal of Phenomenology and Education, 27 (2), 133-154.

Sugiyama, S. (2010). “Fashion and the mobile phone: A study of symbolic meanings of mobile phone for college-age young people across cultures.” Hoflich, J. R., Kircher, G. F., Linke, C., & Schlote, I (Eds.), Mobile Media and the Change of Everyday Life (pp. 171-190). Berlin: Peter Lang.

Sugiyama, S. (2009). “The decorated mobile phone and emotional attachment for Japanese youths.” In J. Vincent, & L. Fortunati (Eds.), Electronic Emotion, the Mediation of Emotion via Information and Communication Technologies (pp. 85-103). Oxford: Peter Lang.

Katz, J.E. & Sugiyama, S. (2006). “Mobile phones as fashion statements: Evidence from student surveys in the US and Japan,” New Media and Society, 8 (2), 367-83.

Katz, J.E. & Sugiyama, S. (2005). “Mobile phones as fashion statements: The co-creation of mobile communication’s public meaning.” In R. Ling & P. Pedersen (Eds.), Mobile Communications: Re-negotiation of the Social Sphere (pp. 63-81). Surrey, UK: Springer.

Sugiyama, S., & Katz, J.E. (2003). “Social conduct, social capital and the mobile phone in the US and Japan: A preliminary exploration via student surveys.” In K. Nyiri (Ed.), Mobile Democracy: Essays on Society, Self and Politics (pp. 375-386). Vienna: Passengen Verlag.

Awards and Honors:

Swiss National Science Foundation, International Exploratory Workshop fund, December 2010

NEH Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Colgate University, August 2005 - May 2006

MacArthur Pre-doctoral Fellowship, Colgate University, August 2004 - May 2005

Recent Conferences:

Sugiyama, S. (2023, July). Japanese city pop and the music streaming platform. Thessaloniki Conference on Global Media and Culture, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Sugiyama, S. (2023, May), Emojis, social boundaries, and the authenticity of emotions. Authenticity in Communications: Media Sociology Post Conference, International Communication Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Sugiyama, S. (2023, May). Presence, touch, and the authenticity of experience, Authenticity in Communicating with Machines: Human Machine Communication Preconference, International Communication Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Sugiyama, S. (2021, June). Fashion media and global social challenges: A case of Vogue Japan. Fashion Tales 2020+1: Politics Through the Wardrobes. ModaCult, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano.

Barile, N., & Sugiyama, S. (2021, June). Wearing devices: what we leave behind and how it shapes us. What People Leave Behind. Marks, Traces, Footprints and their Significance for Social Sciences. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome.

Sugiyama, S. (2021, April). Exploring societal application opportunities of social robots from a communication and media studies perspective. In the session, “Socially Useful Robots in the era of social distancing and new normal - The needs, applications, barriers and solutions,” European Robotics Forum.

Sugiyama, S. (2020, June). Still, we cannot touch: After decades of perpetual contact and absent presence. All in One Festival of Technological Art, online conference organized in collaboration with ITMO University, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Sugiyama, S. (2019, November). The interface, human senses, and emerging technologies. When the Interface Slips Away: Lapsus Machinae, Autonomization and Bugs. Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris.

Sugiyama, S. (2018, October). Social robots as emerging technologies: Exploration through Goffman and Apparatgeist theory. European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) Annual Meeting, University of Lugano, Lugano.

Sugiyama, S. (2017, May). Images of wearable technologies. ZoneModa conference, University of Bologna, Rimini Campus, Italy.

Chair of the Academic Division of Communication, History and Politics Professor, Communication and Media Studies

2024-2025 Courses

Publications:

Awards and Honors:

Recent Conferences:

Chair of the Academic Division of Communication, History and Politics
Professor, Communication and Media Studies