Media Production + Creative Direction
Creative Lead, Host, Executive Producer and Co-Creator
This Anthro Life is a weekly podcast that explores anything and everything human through open conversations and interviews with experts. We take a human-centered approach to realize, understand, solve human problems, and celebrate achievement. We focus on culture and society to see patterns, uncover hidden assumptions and thoughts behind our motivations, hopes, behaviors, and dreams. I am one of the creators of the show and am responsible for content creation, hosting, audio editing, web maintenance, and marketing.
Education + Instructional Design
Adjunct Professor of Design
Lesley University
Adjunct Professor of Civic Media Arts and Practice
Emerson College
Teaching Courses: Design Discourse,
Design Thinking + Research,
Digital Culture
College of Art and Design
Civic Media Methods: Participatory Design
Civic Media Arts and Practice Masters Program
I teach courses that help emerging professional designers and civic practitioners understand who they are designing for, how to understand their own values as designers and to apply them, to question universalizing claims, and to contextualize design in cultural specifics.
I also teach design research and thinking that focuses on methodologies, techniques, and tactics for design research including observational research, empathy building, ideation, and prototyping.
Visual Design + Branding
Website Designer, Information Architect, User Experience
Clients include:
Business Anthropology Community
Consortium for Applied and Practicing Anthropologists
Designed and manage the Business Anthropology Community website, a thriving initiative the brings together the best of business practices, design, career networking, teaching, and visibility for anthropology in business. The community is a venue for sharing knowledge and resources and for enlarging the discussion on the value of business anthropology both intellectually and as an applied practice.
Following my design values of simplicity, attention to detail, and information clarity, this site demonstrates some of my aesthetic inspirations with clean lines, breathable space, and inviting visual design. I regularly consult with users and stakeholders to iterate and improve site mechanics and interaction experience.
Research + Strategy Consulting
Research Fellow and Consultant
Bioversity International
Scientific Intern
Peruvian Ministry of the Environment
As a field anthropologist and research fellow, I ran and coordinated the 2015-2016 Payments for Agrobiodiversity Conservation Services (PACS) program with six Aymara and Quechua communities supporting the cultivation and conservation of five endangered ecotypes of quinoa for future generations. I also work in survey design and implementation including field experiments, total economic value surveys, and multiple incentive mechanisms.
Consultant + Researcher
Kai Pacha Foods
Early Client Scouting for food startup, Problem and Product Definitions, Observational Research, Fact Checking
Brandeis University
PhD Candidate
Aug 2012 – Aug 2018
Specializations: Public and Design Anthropology, Biodiversity Conservation, Food Studies, Science and Technology, Climate and Environmental Change
My work as a Cultural Anthropologist and PhD Candidate focuses on researching, developing and implementing conservation methodologies for at-risk Andean crops in southern Peru. Working between academic and applied realms, I combine ethnographic methods, design anthropology, research development, conservation best practices and market studies to improve communication and insight between multi-lateral stakeholders including government ministries, international NGOs, agricultural agencies, and farming communities to improve farmer livelihood, ecosystem maintenance, and food security outcomes.
Dissertation: Designing the Future of Food: Quinoa Agrobiodiversity in 21st Century Highland Peru
Crowdsourcing the Conversation: On the Future of Podcasting, Public Engagement, and Exercising the Anthropological Tool Kit
We explore the This Anthro Life Podcast project through three themes: anthropology as a conversation, the contemporary need for generalists, and why we see podcasting as a means to public engagement, but not an end in and of itself.
Consulting Podcasters: Prototyping a Democratic Tool for Multiple Voices, Storytelling and Solution Finding
or visit on Medium
Much like Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes had created a niche for himself as a “consulting detective,” there are an increasing number of consulting anthropologists who apply their training, skills, and specialties to helping people define and solve problems today. As anthropologists and podcasters for This Anthro Life, the authors of this paper approach podcasting as a democratic audiovisual production that provides space for multiple voices through storytelling and conversation. Drawing on experiences in design anthropology, media production, and speculative fiction, this paper prototypes the contours of “consulting podcasting,” the work of collaboratively generating shared knowledge for shaping sustainable futures.
Check out the Consulting Podcasters Presentation!
Matt and I spoke as part of the New Methods,Interventions and Approaches Panel at the 2018 Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Conference in Philadelphia, PA. Thanks to the SfAA Podcast team for recording the session!
Cooking Up an International Market for Quinoa
In Peru, a chef and an agronomist are using the kitchen of a five-star hotel to create an appetite for threatened varieties of a traditional crop. SAPIENS, August 2017
Talking Anthropology: Podcasting for the Public (Part One)
Following on a recent piece by Lindsay A. Bell on Podcast Pedagogy, this two-part post explores the potential of the podcast medium outside of traditional academic settings, taking its cue from the mission and work of the This Anthropological Life podcast created, hosted, and produced by PhD students Adam Gamwell, Ryan Collins, and Aneil Tripathy at Brandeis University.
Of Quinoa, Agricultural Science, and Social Change
Adam Gamwell rounds out the anthropologies #22 issue on food. Gamwell is a public anthropologist and PhD Candidate at Brandeis University working across food, design, science, and markets. His research is based in southern Peru on quinoa. He is also Creative Director and host for This Anthro Life Podcast.
Talking Anthropology: Podcasting and its Potential for the Discipline (Part 2)
Connect
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