Norman Makoto Su

Norman Makoto Su is an assistant professor in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University Bloomington where he is an member of the Human Computer Interaction Design (HCI/d) group. Prior to that, I he held a postdoc position at University College Dublin, and earned his PhD at the University of California, Irvine.

He studies our relationship with technology and how this relationship has and can be changed. In particular, his work aims to understand how different subcultures have reconciled themselves with our present age, an age where digital technology is nearly inescapable. He believes that we can learn a lot by studying, designing for, or even provoking both mainstream cultures and niche communities. He has studied a wide range of “users”: from corporate nomadic workers and knowledge management practitioners to hardcore video gamers and Irish traditional musicians. In his current work he is investigating the confluence between traditional/authentic practices and technology.

Academically, his interests lie in human–computer interaction (HCI), computer–supported cooperative work (CSCW), ubiquitous computing, organizational/management science, and science & technology studies (STS).