Angela K. VandenBroek, PhD
@akvbroek.bsky.social
Anthropologist of Innovation (and all the hype that entails) | Asst Prof of Anthro, TXST | Director of InnoAnth Lab | CASTAC Web Producer | She/Her | ak.vbroek.org | All Opinions My Own
Practical and playful - that's how I intended to write this piece on "Making Together" as a method. In it, I offer suggestions for researching sociotechnical objects and communities of practice by un/re/making things with others. Take a look at this excellent volume at kitsformethods.com.
📙Kits for Digital Methods: Doing Sociotechnical Research—edited by me and Nicole Taylor—is officially available for preorder today! 🔗 kitsformethods.com 🛒 Get 20% off when ordering directly from Routledge with promo code 26AFLY1. #anthropology #sts #digital #sociotechnical #newbook #research
📣 Join us for #CASPR2026 — CASTAC in the Spring! "Labor and Technoscientific Worlds: Historical Encounters and New Directions in the Field" — a roundtable with Kalpana Shankar, David Nemer & Lilly Irani honoring David Hakken. 📅 May 29 | 10:30AM–12:30PM CT 🎟️ Register: caspr2026.eventbrite.com
New book alert! 📖 Lora Koycheva, my, and Matt Artz's new book ⭐ Anthropology and AI ⭐ is officially published with Routledge Books—as part of the Anthropology of Now series edited by David Eller! www.routledge.com/Anthropology...
Exciting news! Lora Koycheva, my, and Matt Artz's new book ⭐ Anthropology and AI ⭐ is available for preorder starting tomorrow from Routledge Books—as part of the Anthropology of Now series edited by David Eller! anthropologyandai.com
Anthropology and AI by Koycheva, VandenBroek & Artz
Anthropology and AI explores the complex intersection of artificial intelligence and human society through a diverse collection of anthropological and social scientific perspectives.
anthropologyandai.com
Where can TXST Anthropology take you next? Join us for a virtual open house to learn about grad programs in anthro at TXST. Meet our faculty, explore our centers and labs, and get details on our MA and Applied PhD programs. 📅 Fri, Oct 17, 10AM-12:45PM (Central) 🔗 Register: go.txst.edu/u1e
Where can TXST Anthropology take you next? Join us for a virtual graduate school open house!
Join us for a virtual open house to learn about graduate programs in anthropology at TXST on October 17 at 10AM.
go.txst.edu
Good morning #4s2025 in Seattle! I'm excited to learn and mingle with STS folks! Starting off at the AI and Ground Truth with Dietmar Offenhuber, Beth Coleman and Gabriella Coleman. 🤩 Come say "Hi 👋" if you see me.
Come work with me at @txst.edu! 🤩 Tenure-track Asst Prof in cultural anth with a #MedAnth focus. We seek a broadly trained cultural or linguistic anth whose expertise focuses on the study of health, illness and the institutional and social forces that shape them. jobs.hr.txstate.edu/postings/53850
Assistant Professor
The Department of Anthropology at Texas State University invites applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Cultural Anthropology with a focus on Medical Anthropology, beginning F...
jobs.hr.txstate.edu
CASTAC has stickers! 🤩 Donate and receive 4" vinyl stickers to show your CASTAC support! 💰 Every contribution goes directly toward sustaining CASTAC’s current initiatives and building new ones. 🔗 castac.org/donate #anthropology #STS #technoscience #fundraising #donate @castac.bsky.social
Today I got to celebrate the graduation of my two brilliant students, Manar Naser & Ian Whitehead, who completed their MA today. 🥳 It has been such a privilege to spend the last two years thinking with these inspirational students. You'll both be missed! Congratulations! 👏
I recently got to sit down with Abigail Letsinger to chat about anthropology careers and the applications of anthropology to business and entrepreneurship on AnthroPuzzled 🎙️! Check it out on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, YouTube, or anthropuzzled.com 👉 tinyurl.com/anthropuzzled
Final Call! CASPR 2025 starts 90 minutes! ⏰ 👉 caspr2025.eventbrite.com Come talk about Knowledge in Crisis with Alex Hanna, Emily Yates-Doerr, and Juno Salazar Parrenas at 11AM (CDT) TODAY!
[CASPR 2025] Knowledge in Crisis: Navigating Science in Uncertain Times
As crises reshape knowledge itself—join leading thinkers tackling funding cuts, collapsing care systems & the weaponization of science.
caspr2025.eventbrite.com
Angela K. VandenBroek, PhD@akvbroek.bsky.social · last yr.[CASPR 2025] Knowledge in Crisis: Navigating Science in Uncertain Times May 2 11AM CDT Join us for a roundtable discussion and Q&A with Alex Hanna, Emily Yates-Doerr, & Juno Salazar Parrenas, moderated by CASTAC Co-Chair Ana Carolina de Assis Nunes caspr2025.eventbrite.com #anthropology #STS
Excited for this session with @castac.bsky.social next Friday!
Angela K. VandenBroek, PhD@akvbroek.bsky.social · last yr.CASPR 2025 🌼"Knowledge in Crisis: Navigating Science in Uncertain Times" with @alexhanna.bsky.social, @eyatesd.bsky.social , & @youknowjuno.bsky.social—moderated by @castac.bsky.social. Panel + Breakout Q&A. 📅Friday May 2, 11AM - 1PM (Central) on Zoom ✍️Register: caspr2025.eventbrite.com
CASPR 2025 🌼"Knowledge in Crisis: Navigating Science in Uncertain Times" with @alexhanna.bsky.social, @eyatesd.bsky.social , & @youknowjuno.bsky.social—moderated by @castac.bsky.social. Panel + Breakout Q&A. 📅Friday May 2, 11AM - 1PM (Central) on Zoom ✍️Register: caspr2025.eventbrite.com
[CASPR 2025] Knowledge in Crisis: Navigating Science in Uncertain Times May 2 11AM CDT Join us for a roundtable discussion and Q&A with Alex Hanna, Emily Yates-Doerr, & Juno Salazar Parrenas, moderated by CASTAC Co-Chair Ana Carolina de Assis Nunes caspr2025.eventbrite.com #anthropology #STS
My graduate students have taken to sending me photos of their animals when they send me drafts of their work. So far I've received cats, dogs, baby goats, cows, and a calf. I return photos of my cats. In these unsettled and unsettling times, these small moments of connection and care mean so much.
The 2025 David Hakken Graduate Student Prize is now open for submissions! We invite current or recent graduate students to submit papers showcasing innovative research at the intersection of anthropology and STS. 🗓️ Deadline: June 1, 2025 🔗 Details: castac.org/castac-award...
David Hakken Graduate Student Paper Prize | CASTAC
castac.org
🚨 Attention grad students! The 2025 David Hakken Graduate Student Prize is now open! Submit your unpublished paper (7,000-8,000 words) on anthropology & STS by June 1, 2025. Check the guidelines and learn more here: castac.org/castac-award... #Anthropology #CASTAC #GradLife
David Hakken Graduate Student Paper Prize | CASTAC
castac.org
I have this conversation often with students. This take is dangerous. It seems intuitive but it very much misunderstands how knowledge is produced in the social sciences; how and when that knowledge should be communicated for a general audience; and what good public access to research is for. 🧵
Rory@roryreckons.bsky.social · last yr.The failure of academia to explain things in layperson terms (up until some efforts recently) is one of the reasons for anti-intellectualism. When you make science inaccessible, people will opt for those who sell easier solutions.
The tech/hacker community can do this work and the data is already being collected here, now someone needs to whip up a nice looking website: old.reddit.com/r/Keep_Track...
Project 2025 tracker is now live
*If you are in the position to support my work, I have a [patreon](https://www.patreon.com/RusticGorilla),...
old.reddit.com
Josie Duffy Rice@jduffyrice.bsky.social · 2y agoSomeone should make a database that allows you to click on a location and see in detail how Trumps cuts are hurting you directly. What medical center closed? What schools aren’t being funded? What programs are shutting down?
There is nothing that can break me out of writing fatigue and apathy as quickly as reading recent research publications. I've spent my afternoon clearing out my backlog of journal ToC RSS feeds and now all I want to do is jump back into these inspiring, insightful, and energizing conversations. 🤩
A close 2nd is the feel of opening the hollow, puffy, molded plastic cases of Disney VHS. No cardboard sleeves for these. Slightly textured, thick, clear plastic film protecting the images. A delicate squeak as you pulled the sides apart or closed them. The rattle of the VHS as you pried it out.
Erin McKean@emckean.bsky.social · 2y agowhat’s your favorite instance of haptic nostalgia—the poignant memory of the physicality of an obsolete thing—like dialing a rotary phone, shifting gears in a manual transmission, opening a soda can with a pull ring?
Pressing the lever buttons on my cassette player—the resistance to being pressed, the hard plastic ridges, the audible click when pushed all the way down, and the way you needed to, with two fingers, press record at the same time and a tiny bit more than play to record your fav song on the radio.
Erin McKean@emckean.bsky.social · 2y agowhat’s your favorite instance of haptic nostalgia—the poignant memory of the physicality of an obsolete thing—like dialing a rotary phone, shifting gears in a manual transmission, opening a soda can with a pull ring?
For me: 1. To be an Archaeologist/Egyptologist. 2. Anthropology 3. Same major but switch subfields from archaeology to sociocultural anthropology. 4. Business and Design Anthropologist currently an Asst. Prof of Applied Anthropology (with a decade+ foray into IT, design and strategy)
Wendy N. Wagner 🎃@wnwagner.bsky.social · 2y agoIf you went to college, 1. What was your career goal when you started? 2. Your initial major? 3. If you changed majors, what did you change to? 4. What do you do now professionally 1. Medical examiner (you know I mean "be Scully") 2. Chemistry 3. Philosophy 4. Horror writer
“Where are the findings? You only provide quotes.” New article considers qualitative researchers’ experiences of methodologically incongruent peer review feedback Open Access: dx.doi.org/10.1037/qup0... Few quotes follow 🧵
Is sociocultural #anthropology a career? 🤔 In my chapter for this brilliant new volume, I argue that anthropology is not a #career in the same way that other majors are—that is a specific set of skills and knowledge for a specific set of occupations.💡 bit.ly/4iFD2L5 🧵
Setting aside the UX and Al fiasco that is #SpotifyWrapped this year, ionnalee, again this year, made the music that sang to my soul -(and this doesn't even include the listens on vinyl). Highly recommend this independent artist and her audiovisual Swedish electropop art. 💜
"Bluesky's vision for the new “social internet” is very much a libertarian worldview that is as old as the commercial web itself. [...] What [technocrats] never admit to, though, is that the digital spaces we spend our time in are rarely communities. They're markets."
Bluesky may have the juice, but we don't have to drink the Kool-Aid
The battle for a better web is not one of good and evil. It's so much more boring than that.
fromjason.xyz
![“AI detection [is] truly bogus, does not work, cannot work. No one should use it. If anyone is using it, students should complain. It’s completely illegitimate,” Seaver said. “It’s based on how these systems work, you cannot know for sure and [it creates] very serious consequences for students.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ny7m556yvn5nirqyvyoeeets/bafkreib5xhjim2b276e26kkv6fcq4m6nqip7moeybmwlpc3h262tfm4vwe)