Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State’s Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures is welcoming the newest guest in its Anthropology-Industry Speaker Series for a Tuesday [March 5] presentation on the Starkville campus.

John Sherry, director of Intel Corporation’s User Experience Innovation Lab in Hillsboro, Oregon, is scheduled to speak at 6:30 p.m. in Turner A. Wingo Auditorium at the university’s Old Main Academic Center. Free and open to the public, his talk focuses on “The Evolving Role of Anthropologists in the Technology Industry.”

During his presentation, Sherry will discuss “how the potential contributions of social scientists – particularly anthropologists – extend well beyond just ‘User Experience.’”

“With the advent of artificial intelligence, in particular, the technology industry is undergoing a significant shift in how it thinks about the relationship between humans and technology,” Sherry said. “The questions being raised by this shift are begging for a deeper anthropological engagement, both in industry and academia.”

Sherry received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1995 and worked at Microsoft Corporation before joining Intel Corporation in late 1996. During his time at Intel, he has investigated the role of new technologies across a wide variety of settings, including salmon fishing in Alaska; growing old in the Mediterranean; early childhood vaccination in northern India; and business innovation in the technology industry.

At Intel’s User Experience Innovation Lab, he leads a team of designers, researchers and technologists who are charged with discovering new applications of artificial intelligence, exploring new techniques for human-machine interaction, and increasing understanding of the larger social, economic and cultural implications of these new capabilities.

For more information on Sherry’s talk, contact Hsain Ilahiane, AMEC professor and head, at 662-325-0136 or hsain.ilahiane@anthro.msstate.edu.

MSU’s College of Arts and Sciences includes more than 5,300 students, 300 full-time faculty members, nine doctoral programs and 25 academic majors offered in 14 departments. Complete details about the College of Arts and Sciences or the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures can be found at www.cas.msstate.edu or www.amec.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.