Christina Elson

Executive Director

John A. Allison IV Executive Director
Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University

Christina Elson is the John A. Allison IV Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University. She received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2003 and an MBA from University of Maryland, Smith Executive Program in 2015. She is interested in individual identity, group collaboration, and the limits of systems and organizations. Christina has explored organizational hierarchy, bureaucracy, market structures in pre-modern states, and how elites organize to gain power and authority. Her current research focuses on norms and attitudes that contribute to the success of entrepreneurial teams and the attitudes of younger generations towards political and economic systems. Other areas of expertise come from her curatorial work at the American Museum of Natural History and role as a staff anthropologist at National Geographic Magazine. These include antiquities and cultural heritage in emerging economies, communicating science to the public, and the impact of artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and blockchain on economic systems. She is the creator and host of a podcast called The Inc. Tank that explores the intersection of technology and capitalism.