The Human Show: Innovation through Social Science

 [ Notice: This episode is in Portuguese. As a way of letting the interviewees express themselves fully and also to amplify the access to Brazilians, this session was recorded in the interviewee’s native language. Thus, Andrea Rozenbaum, a Brazilian anthropologist, is also joining us in this episode as a co-host. A transcript of the episode in English can be found in the podcast’s website. ] EN He...

[Notice: This episode is in Portuguese. As a way of letting the interviewees express themselves fully and also to amplify the access to Brazilians, this session was recorded in the interviewee’s native language. Thus, Andrea Rozenbaum, a Brazilian anthropologist, is also joining us in this episode as a co-host. A transcript of the episode in English can be found in the podcast’s website] In times...

Jamie Gordon is a social scientist and consultant whose body of work includes a couple of decades worth of insights and strategies that have been put into action by a global community of brands, corporations and the agencies that serve them. With a B.A. in Anthropology and a M.A. in Applied Sociology both from the University of Central Florida, Jamie has extensively implemented ethnography in the...

EN El Laboratorio de Antropología Abierta (The Open Anthropology Lab) or LAAB is a non-profit organization for the popularization of anthropological knowledge beyond academia. Founded in 2018 by Giselle Figueroa De la Ossa, who after receiving her MSc in Anthropology from The London School of Economics returned back home to Colombia and decided to create a platform opening anthropology for public...

In today’s episode we explore together with Simon the topic of designing applied anthropology courses and industry/academia collaboration. What are the challenges when designing such courses? How does Simon avoid dilemmas an anthropologist might face working with the corporate world and what methods and principles does he embrace to ensure that all parties involved benefit from the applied researc...

Gary Sigley is a scholar of global studies with China as primary focus. His research focuses on cultural and social transformation in a rapidly changing China, with an emphasis at present on China's southwest region (Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Guangxi). He approaches the study of China informed by the knowledge and practice of history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and cultural studies. Ov...

Laura Vardoulakis a human-computer interaction researcher, passionate about technologies that help people live happier, healthier lives and currently leads User Experience Research for Google Health. She holds a Master of Science in Computer Science from Northeastern University, where she later received her PhD in Computer Science on Human-Computer Interaction Concentration. Prior to Google, her r...

Kay Firth-Butterfield is the Head of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at the World Economic Forum. Prior to taking this position she was Executive Director of AI-Global and led the Ethics Advisory Panel of Lucid.ai. Kay has advanced degrees in Law and International Relations and has worked for the past three decades as a barrister, mediator, arbitrator, business owner, professor and ju...

Marc co-founded the Innovation Office in San Francisco government’s social services agency. He gets to lead an internal team that does service design, systems design, visual design and design research. They serve as internal consultants, co-creating digital and non-digital service experiences in the pubic sector.  He received the Edmund Hillary Fellowship in October 2019, allowing him to work in A...

Today Corina and Maria talk to Indra and Ugnė about the applicability of anthropological methods and social science research in its broader sense in a context that is not often talked about – the Baltic states - and particularly Lithuania where Anthropos is taking its initial steps in popularizing ethnography and introducing to the public the many forms and shapes of anthropology. We ask today‘s g...

Dr. Suzanne Wertheim is the CEO and Founder of Worthwhile Research & Consulting. Through the foundation of the research and consulting firm, she strives to address not only academic but also practical problems in business by actively being involved at the intersection of technology, computer science, and linguistic anthropology. She received her Ph. D. in Linguistics from UC Berkeley, and held fac...

Gemma John is an anthropologist and applied researcher creating social value in the built environment. She holds an MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews. After 10 years in academic research, in research and teaching roles at Edinburgh and Manchester, she has spent the last 5 years applying her knowledge and sk...

Morten Nielsen is a social anthropologist working in Mozambique, Scotland and USA on the interrelationship between time and materiality. Since November 2018 he has been based at the National Museum of Denmark where he is a senior researcher. In 2015, Morten Nielsen founded the Urban Orders Reseach Center, a transdisciplinary research center based at Aarhus University, Denmark, which focuses on pop...

The symposium Why The World Needs Anthropologists, Sustaining Cities is an annual event organized by The Applied Anthropology Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists. The network provides a platform for sharing information and experience regarding the applications of anthropology and focuses on the transfer of anthropological knowledge to private and public sectors and to pro...

Today we talk to Nicole and Jason about their rather different professional paths which led them both to Element AI – a global artificial intelligence solutions provider. What sparked our interest in the interview is that Element AI has become the space in which social scientists thrive and we wanted to find out why. We were curious to know how Nicole and Jason engage in the same work bringing div...

PEOPLE (People-Centred Development in Practical and Learning Environments) is an international 3-year EU program aiming to enhance university-business cooperation. The project focuses on the mismatch between qualifications gained by humanities and social science students and skills expected from graduates by employers in industry, particularly in the fields of anthropology, psychology, sociology,...

Roelof Petersis one of the leading AI visionaries and developers in Europe. His academic and professional interests combine software development and digital humanities, his research stretches from history and social movements to creation of new learning tools in computer science. Roelof has degrees in Computer Science from University of Amsterdam and Cultural Anthropology from University of Leiden...

Gloria is a Research Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)’s Faculty of Law and Criminology and Co-Director of the Law, Science, Technology and Society (LSTS) Research Group, and a member of the Brussels Privacy Hub (BPH). She investigates legal issues related to privacy, personal data protection and security, and teaches ‘Data Policies in the European Union’ at the Data Law option of...

In today’s episode we talk to Joanna about AI from a rather philosophical prism, on ethics and much more. Joanna questions the separation between different machines and the special treatment AI receives. She calls for the reconsideration of human awareness of ethics itself, of understanding why we are obliged to each other, which could then make it easier to define and design any obligations towar...

EthnoBorrel and the University of Amsterdam are running a one-day event in Amsterdam, parallel to the annual conference of the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Community (EPIC). The purpose of the conference is to build connections with our fellow ethnographers and explore issues specific to the European context. Today, the profile of ethnography in European industry is growing rapidly. Here in the...

Nayantara Sheoran Appleton is an interdisciplinary scholar with training in Feminist Medical Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies (STS), and Media Studies. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from George Mason University, a MSc in Communication Studies and a BA in Communication and Journalism from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, USA. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the Anthropolo...

Tricia Bruce, PHD is a sociologist and affiliate of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society. Her work intersects the sociological and cultural implications of religion, social change, social movements, immigration, race, and culture. Dr. Bruce is a regular television and radio commentator on a wide variety of contemporary sociological and topics including religi...

Mireille Hildebrandt, a Professor of ‘Interfacing Law and Technology’ at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, of ‘ICT and the Rule of Law’ at Radboud University (the Netherlands), is a lawyer and philosopher whose main research is concerned with the functioning of the rule of law in cyberspace. Her extensive intellectual interests in ethics are rooted in her academic background in criminal and constitution...

In this podcast, we talk with Simon about embodiment and embodied knowledge, a pivotal concept in his commercial work and his forthcoming book. Many of Simon’s interests and projects revolve around the connection between humans and technology, and he questions the idea that technology undermines our humanity. Simon calls for more acknowledgement of the critical role that the body plays in how we m...

This conference brings together design researchers from various backgrounds (including anthropology) from around the world to explore how best to contribute to real and meaningful change in organisations, in economies and within societies. The conference is initiated and hosted by the Reach Network, a global network of agencies specialising in human-centred design research and service innovation....