Bregje van Eekelen

Prof. Dr. Bregje van Eekelen is Full Professor of Design, Culture and Society at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, and Professor of Smart Cities Design at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Her work bridges anthropology, history, and design to analyze reciprocal relations between design practices and socio-political contexts.

• PhD in Cultural Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz
• Founding member, Erasmus Institute for Public Knowledge
• Co-PI, Research Excellence Initiative Depoliticization and the Public Interest

Her research explores concepts like creativity, failure, and design thinking through socio-historical lenses, focusing on their emergence in military/industrial contexts and influence on contemporary common sense. She leads the Brainstorms: A Cultural History of Undisciplined Thought VENI project (1935-1965) and contributes to the Rotterdam Arts and Sciences Lab and Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Scientific Contributions:

• VENI grant (€250,000) for creativity history
• Delft Technology Fellowship (€300,000)
• Co-PI Research Excellence Initiative (€682,000)
• Multiple fellowships: Fulbright, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, UC Regents

Her publications in Journal of Cultural Economy and Annual Review of Anthropology address speculative design, housing crises, and futures education. She leads the Connected Creativity Minor & Lab and collaborates with the Institute for Advanced Study's History Working Group.