Natalie Smolenski

Natalie Smolenski is an anthropologist who leads business development for Learning Machine, a blockchain technology firm. As an author and public speaker, she focuses on the intersections of identity, technology, and government. By bringing a scientific perspective to distributed digital technologies and social transformation, she helps audiences from all backgrounds understand how individuals connect to form communities and build the infrastructures of the future.

Ms. Smolenski’s interdisciplinary doctoral research concerns the origins of mental health and illness in relational economies. She has a PhD in Philosophy, Art, and Critical Theory from the European Graduate School, an MA in Anthropology and History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a BA in Middle Eastern Studies from Brown University. She served as a Fulbright Fellow in Egypt and a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna.