Takuya Maeda

About Me

Hi! I’m Takuya.

I am a 2nd (soon to be 3rd) year PhD student at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University. My research interests span human computer interaction, science and technology studies, and communication, examining the social and ethical impact of anthropomorphic design in AI systems. My current work frames anthropomorphic AI as a social assemblage that affords parasocial dynamics between users and chatbots, examining how actors within sociotechnical systems (developers, users, media, etc.) collectively animate computational tools, making them seem like social “agents.” My work is jointly supervised by Prof. Luke Stark and Prof. Anabel Quan-Haase. Besides FIMS, I'm affiliated with the Rotman Institute of Philosophy and Starling Centre.

In addition to my own research, I am currently engaging in a number of research projects, including (1) a project related to regulatory practices around emerging technologies, and (2) a project on AI literacy and digital divide funded by SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grants.

Previously, I completed a master’s program in information science and engineering at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology, where I studied natural language processing and explored research topics related to social computing, health informatics, online abuse and hate speech, and ethics in NLP.

Research Areas

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Anthropomorphism
• Sociotechnical Systems
• Media Studies
• Science and Technology Studies
• Computer-Mediated Communication

News

• [September 2025] Attending 4S, presenting work related to interaction harms
• [August 2025] Attending the Decennial Aarhus Conference, presenting work on synthetic agents
• [July 2025] Accepted AIES 2025
• [May 2025] Attended the Summer School on Responsible AI and Human Rights at Mila
• [October 2024] Presented a poster(SP) at AIES2024
• [June 2024]   Presented at FAccT 2024
• [March 2024]   Accepted to FAccT 2024
• [September 2023]   Started PhD at Western

Publications

Recent Awards

• 2025     Graduate Fellowship, the Rotman Institute of Philosophy, Western University
• 2024     AIES Travel Award, AAAI/ACM AIES
• 2024     FAccT Travel Award, ACM FAccT’24
• 2023     Catherine Sheldrick Ross Doctoral Recruitment Scholarship, Western University
• 2023     Dean’s Entrance Scholarship, Western University
• 2023-2027     Doctoral Scholarship, Western University
• 2023     NAIST Outstanding Student Award (Given to top 3/140 students), Nara Institute for Science and Technology

Workshops&DC

• 2025 The Summer School on Responsible AI and Human Rights, Mila
• 2024 Doctorial colloquium, AAAI/ACM Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society

Conference & Panel

• (forthcoming) Maeda.T. (2025). Conceptualizing Interaction Harms in LLM Systems. The 50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S): Reverberations
• (forthcoming) Maeda, T. (2025). Nonhumaness and Non-materiality of Synthetic Agents. The Workshop of “Synthetic Data: Representation and/vs Representativeness.” In the Sixth Decennial Aarhus Conference. [Workshop]
• (forthcoming) Quan-Haase, A. & Maeda, T. (2025). CITAMS Media Sociology Symposium, ASA Preconference, August 7 2025 [Keynote]
• Quan-Haase, A. & Maeda, T. (2025). When Human-AI Interactions Become Parasocial: Agency and Anthropomorphism in Affective Design. Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication (SIMC), University of Symbiosis, Pune, India [Invited Talk]
•  Maeda. T., Anderson, H., Quan-Haase, A., Li, M., & Zajko, M. (2024) “Experiences Researching AI Literacy” MediaSmarts Media Literacy Week [Panel]

Grants

• 2025     SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grants, “SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grants”
• 2021     The Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science, Social Science Research Council, “Abusive Language and Gatekeeping in Twitch Streaming Cultures”

Other Recent Experience

Research-related employment

• 2024-present     Graduate Student Assistant, Western University
• 2020-2022     Research Assistant, Social Computing Labs, NAIST

Teaching

Western University

• (Fall2024/Winter 2025)     MIT1020: Introduction to Media, Communication and Technoculture
• (Winter 2024)     MIT2200: Mapping Media and Cultural Theory
• (Fall 2023)     MIT2100: Political Economy of Media

Reearch Collaboration

• 2022-2023     “Understanding Social Withdrawal and Hikikomori: Research and Development of an Intelligent Companion Application for AI-Assisted Therapy”, University of Canterbury

• 2021-2022     AI Ethics and Fairness Research Group, University of Tokyo

  • Project (1):   Fairness framework for Hiring AI
  • Project (2):   Ethical implications and risks of NLP applications for suicide prevention

Service

• Program Committee, AIES 2025

Review

• AIES 2025, CHI LBW 2025, CHI2025, NeurIPS EvalEval Workshop2024, Plos Mental Health

Volunteer

• 2024-2025    Vice President, Media Studies Graduate Student Association, Western University
• 2024    Student Volunteer, FAccT’24
• 2024    Conference Organizing Committee, Generating Community: An Interdisciplinary FIMS Grad Conference, Conference
• 2024-2025    Department Steward, PSAC610
• 2024-present    Facilitator, XPLANE, Sample Article
• 2021-2022 Student Assistant, AAAI 2022 Spring Symposium, “How Fair Is Fair: Achieving Wellbeing AI”

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