Humanising Technology: Reflections on Design, Ethics and Inclusion

Honourary lecture with Sun Sun Lim.

As artificial intelligence, automation, and digital platforms permeate every aspect of our lives, technology is no longer a neutral tool – it is a force shaping how we work, learn, relate, and even think. In this talk, Professor Sun Sun Lim explores how we can design and deploy technology in ways that honour human dignity, empathy, and diversity. Drawing on decades of research into the social impact of technology, she offers compelling reflections on how ethical design, inclusive innovation, and thoughtful governance can ensure that technology serves humanity — not the other way around. This session invites policymakers, educators, technologists, and everyday users to rethink our collective responsibility in humanising technology for a more equitable and sustainable digital future.

The lecture will be held in honour of Sun Sun Lim’s appointment as honourary doctor at the University of Copenhagen. 

Sun Sun Lim biography

Sun Sun Lim is Vice President, Partnerships and Engagement at the Singapore Management University where she is Professor of Communication and Technology at its College of Integrative Studies. 

From 2017-2022 Lim was Professor of Communication & Technology and Head of Cluster (Dean) of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. From 2003 to 2016, she was Assistant then Associate Professor at the Department of Communications & New Media; and from 2014 to 2016, Assistant Dean for Research at the Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. ​

​Her research focuses on technology domestication by families and young people, AI ethics and the future of work. Most recently, she authored Transcendent Parenting: Raising Children in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2020) and co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Communication and Society  (Oxford University Press, 2020). Her other books include Mobile Communication and the Family: Asian Experiences in Technology Domestication  (Springer, 2016) and Asian Perspectives on Digital Culture: Emerging Phenomena, Enduring Concepts (Routledge, 2016).

Article on Honourary Doctors

Read on how HUM's two new honorary doctors study how we navigate complex cultural landscapes.