Michael Butler
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Assistant Professor, Director MA in Human-Technology Interaction, Philosophy & Ethics
- Philosophy of Technology, Phenomenology, Cognitive Science (esp. Embodied Cognition)
Contact Info
- Email: michael.butler.1@UND.edu
- Office: 701.777.3840
Office Address
Philosophy & Ethics
Merrifield Hall Room 302A
276 Centennial Drive Stop 7128
Grand Forks, ND 58202-7128
Philosophy of Technology, Phenomenology, Cognitive Science (esp. Embodied Cognition), Ethics, Continental Philosophy.
2025 - Itterman Faculty Professional Development Award
2024 - UND Fine Arts and Humanities Scholarship Initiative Award
PhD (Philosophy) University of Memphis
MA (Philosophy) Toronto Metropolitan University
BA (Philosophy and Cultural Studies) Trent University
Select Recent Publications:
Vincini, S. Butler, M and Satne, G. (eds) 2025. "Action and Social Interaction: Embodiment, Development, and Collectivity" Special Collection in Cogent Arts and Humanities, Vol. 12, No. 1.
Butler, M. 2025. "The City, The Highway, and the Spatial Level: Navigation Apps and Disorientation" Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol. 29, No. 1.
Butler, M. 2024. “Fracturing the Affordance Space: An Account of Digitalized Alienation” Frontiers in Psychiatry. Vol. 15 No. 1407586. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1407586
Butler, M. and Werkheiser, I. (eds) 2023 “Digital Worlds” special issue of Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology, Vol. 27, No. 2.
Butler M. 2023. “Buying Green: A Trap For Fools, or, Sartre on Ethical Consumerism” in Earthly Engagements: Reading Sartre after the Holocene, Matthew Ally and Damon Boria (eds). Lexington Books.
Select Recent Presentations:
May 2026. Merlin and the Lure of App ID, with Brooke Rudow. Presented at the International Association for Environmental Philosophy
April 2026. The Landscape is Where We Find Ourselves: Embodiment and Digital Photography. With Michael Conlan. Presented at the Digital Worlds Workshop, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland.
October 2025. Technologies of Memory: Digital versus Narrative Access to the Past. Presented at the Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy, University of Alberta
August 2025. Artifical Intelligence and (the) Humanity(ies). Invited presentation at the UND AI Forum
June 2025. Enactivist App Design: Exper – A Case Study. Presented at the Society for Philosophy and Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
February 2025. Humanities in Technology: Career Paths for Students in the Liberal Arts. Invited talk at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley