Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Texas State University
Web Producer, Platypus, The CASTAC Blog
Research Interests
Business Anthropology | Design Anthropology | Digital Anthropology | Entrepreneurship | Expertise | Feminist STS | Foresight | Futures | Infrastructure | Innovation | Science & Technology Studies | Sweden | Web Technologies |
About Angela
I am an assistant professor of anthropology at Texas State University. My Ph.D. is in sociocultural anthropology from Binghamton University in the department of anthropology. I have additionally worked as an applied anthropologist in design, branding, and information technologies since 2008. Broadly speaking, my work sits at the intersection of business and design anthropology and science and technology studies and focuses on how ambitions for better futures by states, citizens and entrepreneurs are coopted and reformed by innovation culture and its infrastructures. I've conducted research in Stockholm Sweden's startup and innovation ecosystem and will be starting research in Austin, Texas starting Fall 2021. I am open to collaborations and seeking students to come work with me at Texas State. Want to work with me? Send me an email (akvbroek@txstate.edu / akvbroek@gmail.com) or message me on whatever social media you find me on—my DMs are open. :) Beyond that, I am also an avid minecrafter, a whovian, the wife of a fantastic cook, and a general nerd.
Contact
Contributions to Platypus, The CASTAC Blog
View all of Angela's posts on Platypus, The CASTAC Blog.
Platypod, Episode Five: CASPR – CASTAC in the Spring 2022
This episode presents a recording of CASPR 2022, or the CASTAC in the Spring 2022 event, which took place on May 10, 2022. CASPR 2022 was organized to encourage dialogue on breaking down binaries that have separated academe and industry. Angela VandenBroek (TXST), Melissa Cefkin (Waymo), and Dawn Nafus (Intel) discuss their work in leading socially-informed research in industry contexts. (more…) (read more...)
A Very Lengthy Swedish Introduction: Hype, Storytelling, and the Question of Entrepreneurial Allies
At a Stockholm-based entrepreneur meetup, two entrepreneurs stood on stage ready to pitch their startup to a panel of venture capital investors (VCs). The man clicked the laptop button to display their first slide—a large image of their logo. “Hello! I am Per and this is Jonna and this is our startup, Forests! We are on a mission to understand the world’s forests and their inhabitants.” Jonna moved to the second slide and told the story of an endangered forest-dwelling animal. On the next slide, Per talked more specifically about the importance of the world’s forests to global climate change. On the fourth slide, the endangered animal appeared again. “Oh, this guy again!” the event’s moderator interrupted with an exaggerated tone of exhaustion. The entrepreneurs laughed nervously and continued to talk about the grand mission of their company to support climate research with crowdsourced data from birders, amateur naturalists, and (read more...)