Anuli Akanegbu, PhD, (pronounced: Ah-noo-lee A-ka-nay-boo) is a cultural anthropologist and cultural worker based in Atlanta. Her mixed-methods research mainly focuses on labor and Black expressive cultures in the American South, combining ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and quantitative analysis to shed light on how Black workers navigate structural inequality, technological change, and economic instability. Anuli’s interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research and media-making shapes how she teaches, facilitates public dialogue, and builds spaces for collective learning that are participatory, culturally grounded, and rooted in care. With professional experience spanning research, brand strategy, digital culture, teaching, and media production, her work bridges theory and practice to make complex ideas accessible and meaningful across various fields, formats, and communities. 

As part of her commitment to public scholarship and media-making, Anuli created BLK IRL®, a multimedia ecosystem built around Black storytelling, experiential learning, and community engagement. Guided by a Black feminist ethic of care and a devotion to place, BLK IRL® facilitates the conscious sharing of Black knowledge systems as tools for navigating social and technological shifts, insisting that while the world wants us to work like machines, we were made to live like humans.

Anuli earned her PhD in cultural anthropology from New York University in 2024 and holds a B.A. in Communications and Culture from Howard University where she graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 CGPA. Her doctoral dissertation, The South Got Something to Share: A Behind-the-Screens Look at the Work/Lives of Black Creative Contract Workers in Atlanta, was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and forms the foundation of her forthcoming book on the genealogy of creative contract work, its interaction with identity, and its role in Atlanta’s city branding. Before her academic career, she worked as a senior strategist and brand planner at the global communications firm Edelman, where she honed her expertise in digital culture, consumer research, and creative strategy. 

As the labor, race, and technology researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute Anuli is currently working on a sole-author ethnographic study on how AI is transforming work and access for Black workers in Atlanta. Alongside her ethnographic work, Anuli conducts archival research to recover overlooked narratives of Black labor, creativity, and cultural production. She continues to expand this approach through a public humanities perspective, exploring collaborations across documentary, narrative, branded, and audio productions to connect scholarship, storytelling, and collective memory.

Anuli Akanegbu, PhD, (pronounced: Ah-noo-lee A-ka-nay-boo) is a cultural anthropologist and cultural worker based in Atlanta. Her mixed-methods research mainly focuses on labor and Black expressive cultures in the American South, combining ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and quantitative analysis to shed light on how Black workers navigate structural inequality, technological change, and economic instability. Anuli’s interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research and media-making shapes how she teaches, facilitates public dialogue, and builds spaces for collective learning that are participatory, culturally grounded, and rooted in care. With professional experience spanning research, brand strategy, digital culture, teaching, and media production, her work bridges theory and practice to make complex ideas accessible and meaningful across various fields, formats, and communities.