Adam Gamwell | Lesley University (original) (raw)

Dr. Adam Gamwell is a Design Anthropologist, or what he likes to call a Design-Centered Human, with international experience in ethnographic and contextual research, narrative media production, cultural analysis, social strategy and education.

His Design Anthropology practice mixes holistic, systems-level perspectives, participatory design, and grounded, ethnographic analyses to collaboratively diagnose problems and craft solutions across culture, behavior, and environment.

He co-founded and hatched Missing Link Studios, with data ethnographer Astrid Countee. Missing Link is a social intelligence agency that uses data driven media production to create compelling stories through podcasts, blogs, film, music, interactive web, research, and data journalism. They produce products and services for clients by working across data analytics, media production, design, and community management. Missing Link At the Studio Adam especially enjoys producing socially impactful narrative media, sound and web design.

These days Adam is also playing with the idea of being a Research Artist, which he defines as a practitioner who infuses and transforms our experiences of academically-grounded, deep research with delight, spectacle, and provocation. His work blends science communication, public education, curiosity and wonder with rigorous research to help expand public consciousness, empathy and collective problem solving. He believes deeply that education is a fundamental human right, and that it should be enjoyable and engaging.

He is Host, Creative Lead and Executive Producer of This Anthro Life Podcast, based in Boston, MA, and has over 15 years of audio production and sound engineering experience. He has also created the pilot podcast for Lesley University College of Art + Design called Scene and Heard, and a collaborative mini-series on migration and cultural enterprise between the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the American Anthropological Association, and This Anthro Life called CultureMade.

He teaches design-centered courses such as Design Thinking and Research, Products and Markets, and Participatory Design in the the Greater Boston Area around topics such as design and user research, digital cultures, products and marketing, and participatory and media design.

Adam's work towards a PhD in Cultural Anthropology at Brandeis University (2012-2018) involved researching, developing and implementing conservation methods for at-risk Andean crops in southern Peru. Working between academic and applied realms, he combined ethnographic methods, design anthropology, research development, project management, conservation best practices and market studies. This hybrid approach catalyzed communication and insight-sharing between multilateral stakeholders including government ministries, international NGOs, agricultural agencies, and farming communities and to improve smallholder farmer livelihood, ecosystem resilience, and food security outcomes.

He speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and a little Quechua.
Supervisors: Elizabeth Ferry and Jon Anjaria

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