Yuliya (Julie) Grinberg, PhD is a cultural anthropologist, qualitative user researcher, and advertising professional. Her applied research practice combines business savvy culled from years of brand strategy and ethnographic research experience with academic rigor and depth. Dr. Grinberg has worked with clients across a range of categories including CPG, B2B, and the technology sector. Grounding her work in anthropological approaches, she develops research that has “legs;” research that takes her clients into uncharted strategic territories and new creative directions.
Dr. Grinberg specializes in digital culture. In addition to her research consulting work, she teaches courses on ethical, social, and political issues as they relate to questions of technological innovation, automation, big data, and the future of work. She previously taught at The Cooper Union, NYU, Barnard College, and Drew University.
She holds a PhD in sociocultural anthropology from Columbia University. Her doctoral work examined the diverse ways professional ambitions, commercial imperatives, and entrepreneurial anxieties shape digital knowledge. This research forms the basis of her first book, Ethnography of an Interface: Self-Tracking, Quantified Self, and the Work of Digital Connections (forthcoming May 2025 from Cambridge University Press). She also holds a B.S. in Marketing from NYU Stern School of Business.
Fluent in Russian, in her spare time she enjoys reading in both languages, traveling to new destinations, and baking with her son and daughter.
Illustration shows the sphygmograph developed by Etienne-Jules Marey in 1860, as depicted in Picturing Time: The Work of Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904) (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992)