Jan English-Lueck
Professor
Department of Anthropology
Current Research Activities
Based on my work in clean and food tech, I created a new research agenda, one that closely examined the tension between capitalism and the legacy of the military industrial complex in Silicon Valley workplaces and the countercultural impulses that influence the region. I have conducted two years of fieldwork, often including research practical students in the work. Out of this research I drafted a manuscript for Stanford University press, tentatively titled, Reinventing Nature in Silicon Valley, during my sabbatical in Fall 2020. I plan to co-author and article for Visual Anthropology Review with Tina Korani on the virtual reality installation associated with the research. We created a virtual co-working space, maker kitchen, garden and public intersection that form the central matrix for actual (if voice-altered) quotations from interviewees. The installation will be revised to accommodate the post-COVID-reality. I am active in EPIC where I have been working to disseminate the techniques of Ethnofutures as an area of interdisciplinary application. I presented a tutorial on the subject, peer-reviewed and accepted, in October 2020. That work reflects my research on forecasting in organizations with the Institute for the Future. My article on the state of “Anticipatory Anthropology” for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Anthropological Research is related to that scholarly agenda. I plan to develop two additional research activities. I will work with Dr. Kerry Rohrmeier and Mosaic America to create a cultural map of creative activities among immigrant and ethnic cultures. I also plan to apply for an NEH Summer Institute grant to fund a Silicon Valley Cultures program when COVID-19 permits such gathering.
Research Connections to Current Events
My RSCA work explores cultural diversity and economic inequality in Silicon Valley. I am consistently consulted by journalists who seek to understand the underlying values of the region and the structural underpinnings of inequality.
Social Media
Keywords
Cultural Futures, applied anthropology, anthropology of work, anthropology of technology, Silicon Valley Studies
