Biography and education
My work sits at the intersection of business anthropology, design anthropology, and science and technology studies. I am fascinated by the ways that we organize and mobilize our resources, stories, and ideas to drive social and cultural change. This interest took me to Stockholm, Sweden—known for producing more innovative, billion-dollar unicorn companies per capita than anywhere in the world (except sometimes Silicon Valley)—to study the extremely powerful and globally pervasive practice of innovation through entrepreneurship. With both a PhD in anthropology and a professional background in design and technologies, I am both excited by the possibilities of entrepreneurial innovation and critical of it’s frequent shortsightedness, capitalist constraints, and shallow understanding of humanity. I seek to harness the power of the anthropological perspective to challenge the hype around innovation. I aim to document how entrepreneurial systems and infrastructures of innovation work, for whom, and why—then contextualize that within a wider scope of human innovation to inspire innovative thinking around innovation.
In addition to my anthropological training, I have more than 20 years of professional experience outside of academic anthropology. As a first-generation college student from a low-income household, my career in higher education has been defined by the need to maintain a parallel patchwork career for subsistence. After developing skills during my BS and MA, I transitioned to a 13+ year career as an applied anthropologist. I worked primarily for non-profits (e.g., community organizations, institutions of higher education, libraries, etc.) that could not normally afford the luxury of an anthropologist on staff or contract. So, I developed a wide array of skills beyond anthropology, including web design, back-end web development, system administration, graphic design, marketing and branding, organizational strategy, and program evaluation. Both as a full-time employee and as a freelancer, I combined my anthropological research skills and expertise with these technical and artistic skills to produce anthropological-informed designs and solutions at low costs with big impacts.
In addition to my anthropological training, I have more than 20 years of professional experience outside of academic anthropology. As a first-generation college student from a low-income household, my career in higher education has been defined by the need to maintain a parallel patchwork career for subsistence. After developing skills during my BS and MA, I transitioned to a 13+ year career as an applied anthropologist. I worked primarily for non-profits (e.g., community organizations, institutions of higher education, libraries, etc.) that could not normally afford the luxury of an anthropologist on staff or contract. So, I developed a wide array of skills beyond anthropology, including web design, back-end web development, system administration, graphic design, marketing and branding, organizational strategy, and program evaluation. Both as a full-time employee and as a freelancer, I combined my anthropological research skills and expertise with these technical and artistic skills to produce anthropological-informed designs and solutions at low costs with big impacts.
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Featured grants
- VandenBroek, Angela Kristin (Principal). Thord-Gray Memorial Fund Fellowship for Dissertation Research, American-Scandinavian Foundation, Private / Foundation / Corporate, $23000. (Funded: August 2017 - August 2018). Grant.

Featured scholarly/creative works
- Koycheva, L., VandenBroek, A. K., & Artz, M. (Eds.). (n.d.). Anthropology of AI. Anthropology of Now Series. Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/Anthropology-and-AI/Koycheva-VandenBroek-Artz/p/book/9781032866192
- VandenBroek, A. K., & Taylor, N. (Eds.). (n.d.). Kits for Digital Methods: Doing Sociotechnical Research. Routledge.
- VandenBroek, A. K. (2024). Tactics for Anthropology + Design Beyond the Academic & Applied Binary. In C. Miller & J. M. Spears (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Practicing Anthropology and Design. Routledge. Retrieved from https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Companion-to-Practicing-Anthropology-and-Design/Spears-Miller/p/book/9781032374161
- VandenBroek, A. K., & Koycheva, L. (2024). Sandbox Innovation: Potentials and Impacts. Practicing Anthropology, 46(1), 36–45. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/08884552.2024.2307293
- VandenBroek, A. K. (2022). Pitching Hype: Storytelling and Entrepreneurship. In E. Liebow & J. C. McKenna (Eds.), Anthropology and Entrepreneurship: The Current State of Research and Practice (pp. 49–57). Arlington, VA, USA: American Anthropological Association with support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Retrieved from https://entrepreneur.americananthro.org/
Featured awards
- Award / Honor Recipient: Award of Excellence for Dedicated Service and Outstanding Accomplishments, Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology, & Computing in the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Association. 2020
- Award / Honor Recipient: CLS ProQuest Innovation in College Librarianship Award, College Libraries Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries. 2010
- Award / Honor Recipient: Irmgard H. Wolfe Award for Best Graduate Paper in Anthropology, Department of Anthropology at the University of Southern Mississippi. 2008
- Award / Honor Recipient: Walton Boston Koch Distinguished Merit Scholarship, Department of Anthropology at Grand Valley State University. 2005

Featured service activities
- Other
Innovative Anthropologies Lab
- Member
Hiring Committee for Medical Anthropology Assistant Professor
- Other
Silicon Island: Building Equitable Tech Futures in Out of the Way Places (Danish Research Fund)
- Chair
Anthropology Brownbag & Speaker Series
- Other
Anthropology Promotion & Branding
- Officer
Committee for the Anthropology of Science, Technology, and Computing (CASTAC) in the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Association