Genevieve Bell

Genevieve Bell
Genevieve Bell in 2017
13th Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University
In office
1 January 2024 – 11 September 2025
ChancellorJulie Bishop
Preceded byBrian Schmidt
Succeeded byRebekah Brown (acting)
Personal details
Born1967 (age 58–59)
EducationBryn Mawr College (BA, MPhil)
Stanford University (PhD)
Academic background
ThesisTelling Stories Out of School: Remembering the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1879–1918 (1998)
Doctoral advisorsArthur Wolf
Hill Gates
Academic work
DisciplineAnthropology
Institutions

Genevieve Bell (born 1967) AO FTSE FAHA FASSA is an Australian cultural anthropologist who served as the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University from 1 January 2024 until her resignation on 11 September 2025 sparked by staff and student outrage over large staff cuts in an attempted restructure. She is best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice research and technological development (including as a pioneer in the field of futurist research), and for being an industry pioneer of the user experience field. Bell was the inaugural director of the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Innovation Institute (3Ai), which was co-founded by the Australian National University (ANU) and CSIRO’s Data61, and a Distinguished Professor of the ANU College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics. From 2021 to December 2023, she was the inaugural Director of the new ANU School of Cybernetics. She also holds the university's Florence Violet McKenzie Chair, and is the first SRI International Engelbart Distinguished Fellow. She is widely published, and holds 13 patents.