For my first interview in the Interview Series, I interviewed Astrid Countee. She is a business anthropologist and technologist with a background in anthropology, software engineering, and data science. She currently works as a user researcher at the peer-to-peer distributed company Holo, as a research associate at The Plenary, as an arts and education nonprofit, and as a co-founder of Missing Link Studios which distributes the This Anthro Life podcast.
If the audio does not play on your computer, you can download it here:
Over our conversation, we discussed the following:
- Astrid’s work as a technologist and anthropology
- Strategies for how to develop programming and data skills as an anthropologist
- Astrid’s experiences developing and using statistical and data science tools in her work
- The importance of maker anthropology
Our conversation touched on a variety of exciting topics, which I hope to follow-up on in more detail in the coming months. I hope you enjoy.
To learn more about Astrid and her work, see her LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/astridcountee
Here are the various items that she mentioned during the conversation:
- “Burn Math Class: And Reinvent Mathematics for Yourself” by Jason Wilkes: https://www.amazon.com/Burn-Math-Class-Reinvent-Mathematics/dp/0465053734
- “The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn”: https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/aman.13398
- Cultural Anthropologist Portrayal in “The Newsroom”:
- Video Clip #1 https://youtu.be/kI6bj3jUTrI
- Video Clip #2 https://youtu.be/kwk_Ot8orPY
Thanks, Astrid, for being willing to share your insights.
Next Interview in the Interview Series: https://ethno-data.com/schaun-interview-1/
Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed this exploration of anthropology and data science. It is striking how we let engineers who don’t think about culture make decisions that affect our how many notifications we get in a day. Technology shapes our culture and the more we make intentional decisions about how we can do that better the better our world will be.
Very interesting conversation. Good thoughts on the skills required of anthropologists today and the contributions you can make.
Thank you Bryce and Dad. I agree that we should think intentionally about the technology we produce to help make the world a better place. Tech is an important place for anthropologists to work.