Jon Clindaniel

I am a computational anthropologist who studies the anthropology of and with computation. My research examines how cultural meaning is encoded in everything from archaeological archives and global museum collections to digital platforms, marketplaces, and contemporary AI systems. I also build computational methods that enable anthropologists to connect local meaning-making to the large-scale, high-velocity information infrastructures that increasingly mediate cultural life. For me, “scale” is not simply a technical issue but a central site of anthropological inquiry: understanding contemporary culture requires tracing how small, situated practices become entangled with computational systems operating at planetary geographic scope and on ever smaller temporal scales.

I earned my PhD in Anthropology from Harvard University and currently teach Computational Social Science at the University of Chicago.