Angela Kristin VandenBroek

Details

Assistant Professor
Director of the Innovative Anthropologies Lab

Curriculum Vita

Education

Ph.D. Anthropology, Binghamton University, 2021
M.A. Anthropology, University of Southern Mississippi, 2010
B.S. Anthropology, Grand Valley State University 2005

Research Interests

science and technology studies (STS); feminist STS; business anthropology, design anthropology, applied anthropology; innovation; entrepreneurship; technologies; design; futures and foresight; expertise; and infrastructure

Bio

My work sits at the intersection of business anthropology, design anthropology, and science and technology studies. I am fascinated by the ways that we organize and mobilize our resources, stories, and ideas to drive social and cultural change. This interest took me to Stockholm, Sweden—known for producing more innovative, billion-dollar unicorn companies per capita than anywhere in the world (except sometimes Silicon Valley)—to study the extremely powerful and globally pervasive practice of innovation through entrepreneurship. With both a PhD in anthropology and a professional background in design and technologies, I am both excited by the possibilities of entrepreneurial innovation and critical of it’s frequent shortsightedness, capitalist constraints, and shallow understanding of humanity. I seek to harness the power of the anthropological perspective to challenge the hype around innovation. I aim to document how entrepreneurial systems and infrastructures of innovation work, for whom, and why—then contextualize that within a wider scope of human innovation to inspire innovative thinking around innovation.

In addition to my anthropological training, I have more than 20 years of professional experience outside of academic anthropology. As a first-generation college student from a low-income household, my career in higher education has been defined by the need to maintain a parallel patchwork career for subsistence. After developing skills during my BS and MA, I transitioned to a 13+ year career as an applied anthropologist. I worked primarily for non-profits (e.g., community organizations, institutions of higher education, libraries, etc.) that could not normally afford the luxury of an anthropologist on staff or contract. So, I developed a wide array of skills beyond anthropology, including web design, back-end web development, system administration, graphic design, marketing and branding, organizational strategy, and program evaluation. Both as a full-time employee and as a freelancer, I combined my anthropological research skills and expertise with these technical and artistic skills to produce anthropological-informed designs and solutions at low costs with big impacts.

I am also the web producer for the Committee for the Anthropology of Science Technology and Computing (CASTAC) in the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Association.

Recent Publications

VandenBroek, Angela K. 2022. “Pitching Hype: Storytelling and Entrepreneurship.” In Anthropology and Entrepreneurship - The Current State of Research and Practice, edited by Edward Liebow and Janine Chiappa McKenna, 49–58. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association.

VandenBroek, Angela Kristin. 2022. “Like Clockwork: Experts and Expertise in Stockholm’s Startup and Innovation Ecosystem.” Journal of Business Anthropology 11 (2). https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v11i2.6780.

Recent Media

Platypod, Episode Five: CASPR – CASTAC in the Spring 2022 — This episode presents a recording of CASPR 2022, or the CASTAC in the Spring 2022 mentoring event, which took place on May 10, 2022. CASPRT 2022 was organized to encourage dialogue on breaking down binaries that have separated academe and industry. Angela VandenBroek (TXTS), Melissa Cefkin (Waymo), and Dawn Nafus (Intel) discuss their work in leading socially-informed research in industry contexts.

Angela VandenBroek on Anthropology in Business — In this episode of the Anthropology in Business podcast, Angela VandenBroek speaks with Matt Artz about her career as a business anthropologist. The conversation covers Angela’s journey from consulting and studying innovation, to teaching applied anthropology at Texas State University.