Academy Fellow

Genevieve Bell’s work has engaged industry, government, a broad range of sectors, and the general public which she believes is critically important as we seek to drive different kinds of conversations about technology and our futures with it. Her work has sought to articulate both specific ethnographic insights from the intersections of technology and specific cultural contexts, as well as broader methodological and theoretical interventions into how we might study such intersections, including the identification of new domains for critical inquiry, and new approaches. She has a strong orientation to building things, and her key outputs include building industry roadmaps, new technologies, shaping government policy and regulation, creating and implementing new education programs and recently founding both an Institute and a School at the Australian National University (ANU).

Although born and raised in Australia, Bell holds degrees in cultural anthropology from Bryn Mawr College and Stanford University. Her original training was ethnohistory and native-American studies and included extensive archival work, and early attempts to fuse qualitative and quantitative research methods and material. Bell left a faculty appointment at Stanford, and academic anthropology, in 1998 and commenced a path-breaking career in industry. Following in the footsteps of anthropologists like Julian Orr and Lucy Suchmann, she charted a career in Silicon Valley as a researcher, developer and strategist. Over the last 25 years, she has worked to bring anthropology into new domains and conversations in industry, government and the higher education sector.

From 1998 to 2017, she was employed full time at Intel Corporation. There her rigorously grounded ethnographic research emphasized the importance of considering cultural nuances, social practices, and human behaviour when designing technological systems, challenging the prevailing notion that technology was a purely objective and value-neutral entity. Her groundbreaking work has not only advanced the understanding of the intricate interplay between humans and technology but has also paved the way for a more nuanced and culturally sensitive approach within the tech industry.

One of the key impacts of Bell's research has been the reshaping of the tech industry's approach to product design and user experience. In addition to her work at Intel, her emphasis on the significance of cultural understanding has prompted many tech companies to prioritize ethnographic research and user-centred design methodologies. By integrating these approaches into development processes, companies have been able to create products and services that resonate more effectively with diverse global audiences.

In 2017, Bell returned to Australia to assume the role of Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University (ANU). She was appointed as an entrepreneurial fellow and the inaugural Florence Violet McKenzie Chair. That year she founded the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Innovation Institute (3Ai), ANU’s first innovation institute. 3Ai focused on developing an approach to safely, responsibly and sustainably scale artificial intelligence. In 2021, 3Ai formed the basis a new school at ANU when Bell founded the School of Cybernetics. Here Bell again focussed on bringing the best of anthropology into new domains and building new kinds of capability and capacity. 

Vice Chancellor and President, Australian National University

Scientific Expert Member, National Science and Technology Council, Australia

Distinguished Professor, Australian National University

AO (Order of Australia)

FTSE (Fellow, Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering)

FAHA (Fellow, Australian Academy of the Humanities)

1. Bell, G 2023, 2023 Ann Moyal Lecture, National Library of Australia, viewed 14 October 2024, <https://nla.gov.au/stories/video/2023-ann-moyal-lecture-professor-genevieve-bell>.

2. Bell, G 2021, ‘Touching the future: Stories of systems, serendipity and grace’, Griffith Review 71: Remaking the Balance, no. 71, pp. 251-262. 

3. Bell, G, Zafiroglu, A, Assaad, Z, Bradley, C, Cooper, N, O’Brien, E, Reid, K & Ruster, L 2021, Custodians and Midwives: The Library of the Future, ANU School of Cybernetics, viewed 14 October 2024, <https://cybernetics.anu.edu.au/projects/custodians-and-midwives/>.

4. Bell, G, Gould, M, O’Brien, E & Paulk, C 2023, Backbones and Blueprints: Cybernetics Approaches to the Metaverse, ANU School of Cybernetics, viewed 14 October 2024, <https://cybernetics.anu.edu.au/projects/the-metaverse-building-systems-by-design/>.

5. Bell, G 2022, ‘The metaverse is a new word for an old idea’, MIT Technology Review, 8 February, viewed 14 October 2024, <https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/02/08/1044732/metaverse-history-snow-crash/>.