Anuli Akanegbu, PhD (pronounced Ah-noo-lee A-ka-nay-boo), is an interdisciplinary scholar, cultural anthropologist, and labor researcher specializing at the critical intersection of race, labor history, and emergent technologies. Focusing on the lived experiences of Black workers in the U.S. South, her scholarship bridges anthropology and history to analyze how algorithmic management, automation, and digital shifts alter the value and experience of labor, rewriting the social contract for the modern workforce. Through her research and storytelling practice, BLK IRL, Anuli shows how scholarly inquiry into labor, race, and technology can live as community storytelling and actionable insights for the future of work at the same time. 

Anuli currently serves as the Communications Lead and a Steering Committee Member for the Atlanta Interdisciplinary AI (AIAI) Network. She was formerly a researcher for the Labor Futures program at Data & Society Research Institute, where she published the landmark report, (404) Job Not Found: What Workforce Training Can’t Fix for Black Atlantans in the Age of AI, which examines how the modern rush for “AI upskilling” echoes past tech booms by placing the burden of survival on individual workers while ignoring structural barriers.

An alumna of Howard University, Anuli graduated summa cum laude with a 4.0 cumulative GPA in Communications and Culture alongside a minor in Broadcast Journalism. She later earned her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from New York University, transitioning to academia after building a career in marketing, corporate brand strategy, and consumer research at the global communications marketing firm Edelman. Find Anuli online at www.anuliwashere.com and www.blkirl.com.