Genevieve Bell

Genevieve Bell is an anthropologist and researcher with 15 years of experience driving innovation in the high tech industry. Bell will speak on the topic of “Culture, Technology and Innovation around the World” on Friday, April 11, 2014, at 7 pm in the Hermann Union Building. This event will be part of an interdisciplinary conference hosted by the Benjamin Franklin Project at IIT. The conference, “Infrastructures of Creativity: Institutions and Innovation in the 18th and 21st Centuries,” will consider today’s innovation landscape alongside that of the Atlantic Enlightenment, which was a period of remarkable innovation and creativity. Over the course of the two days, we will explore the types of institutional infrastructures and intellectual processes that foster or, alternatively, hinder innovation.

As the Director of Interaction and Experience Research in Intel Labs, Bell leads a team of social scientists, interaction designers, human factors engineers and computer scientists in their research of new computing experiences that are centered around people’s needs and desires. In addition to leading this increasingly important area at Intel, Bell is an accomplished industry commentator on the intersection of culture and technology and has been extensively featured in publications that include Wired, Forbes, The Atlantic, Fast Company, and the Wall Street Journal. In August 2013, Fast Company declared her to be one of the top 25 smartest women on Twitter, where she goes by the handle, @feraldata.

All IIT students, faculty, staff, and alumni are invited to attend Dr. Bell’s talk, as well as all other keynote events. For a full list of conference events and more details, visit the conference website.