Spencer Kaplan

Spencer is a PhD student in sociocultural anthropology. He studies technology, finance, and media in North America and Europe. He is interested in how human selves are created and modeled in spaces of finance and technological development. How do cultural beliefs about what it means to be human, and what it means to be a better human, animate the designs of cutting-edge technologies and markets? Besides anthropology, he engages with science and technology studies, media studies, ethics, and critical theory. His ethnographic work has brought him in contact with art collectors, Wall Street bankers, and, most recently, NFT enthusiasts in Berlin.

His research is motivated by previous experience working in technology and management consulting. He received an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and a BA in International Studies and Economics from the University of Chicago.