The Innovative Anthropologies Lab (InnoAnth) at Texas State University is a laboratory and network of researchers dedicated to anthropologies that take up applied, public, activist, and community-based research aimed to produce impactful and actionable insights. Being innovative isn’t only about generating new ideas but also following those ideas out into the communities that live with them to build iterative and collaborative relationships for ongoing responsive innovation. Real impacts happen within the heterogeneous landscape of and among the improvisations of social life. Thus, as innovative anthropologists, we seek to broaden and support diverse forms of doing and communicating anthropology. We support research and learning in these complex, unruly social spaces to help businesses, organizations, and communities better understand how ideas become (intended or unintended) social realities. And, we strategize better ways of engaging social improvisation as we seek social, economic, and environmental justice and improvements in our communities.
The InnoAnth Lab is dedicated to building strong interdisciplinary collaborations across both academic and practicing researchers. We are committed to building an inclusive community of researchers that values “both…and,” to thrive among diverse ways of thinking, learning, and knowing—productively building from and experimenting with the serendipity of juxtaposition, contradiction, and difference.
The physical space of the InnoAnth lab is located in the Evans Liberal Arts building at Texas State University. The space is a hub for cultural and linguistic anthropologists on campus and includes technology and equipment for students, faculty, and our collaborators to use in research, learning, and experimentation. The InnoAnth lab network is a set of events and infrastructures for supporting our members in sharing, collaborating, and supporting one another online and in person.