The Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern Qatar (#IAS_NUQ) will examine the meaning of “the digital” and its practices, experiences, and infrastructures in the Global South at its spring conference, Southern Digitalities, taking place on March 15 and 16, 2023.
Over two days, the conference will gather more than 20 scholars and academics from around the world to explore the impact of digital tools, experiences, and articulations in the Global South in panel discussions focused on five main themes: epistemology, belonging, work, data, and infrastructure.
Chaired by Northwestern Qatar Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy, the first panel on epistemology will examine scholarly approaches to digital technologies, touching on their ethical implications, the possibility of centering digital scholarship away from Western knowledge systems, and proposing new sites of theorizing. Panelists will include Tanja Bosch, associate professor at the University of Cape Town; Paris-Sorbonne University Professor Milad Doueihi; Eugenia Mitchelstein of the Universidad de San Andrésand; and Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia.
The second day of the conference will begin with a panel discussion on belonging, examining how digital media practices in the Global South allow us to rethink bodily autonomy, online activism, the politics of race and racism, and global meme cultures. The panel will feature Northwestern Qatar Professor Heather Jaber; Giang Nguyen-Thu, research fellow at the University of Queensland; Zhejiang University Professor Jian Xiao; and Sulafa Zidani, assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A panel on work will feature a presentation on the datafication of everyday life in Africa and the Global South by the University of Massachusetts Professor Seyram Avle, another on the Turkish drama industry in the digital age by Ergin Bulut, associate Professor at Koç University, and one on the agency and precarity of platformized delivery and ride-hailing workers in the Philippines by Cheryll Soriano, Professor of Communication, De La Salle University. The panel will also feature a presentation on the history of digital evolution in the Middle East delivered jointly by Northwestern Qatar Professor Joe Khalil and Georgetown University in Qatar Professor Mohamed Zayani.
Over two days, the conference will gather more than 20 scholars and academics from around the world to explore the impact of digital tools, experiences, and articulations in the Global South in panel discussions focused on five main themes: epistemology, belonging, work, data, and infrastructure.
Chaired by Northwestern Qatar Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy, the first panel on epistemology will examine scholarly approaches to digital technologies, touching on their ethical implications, the possibility of centering digital scholarship away from Western knowledge systems, and proposing new sites of theorizing. Panelists will include Tanja Bosch, associate professor at the University of Cape Town; Paris-Sorbonne University Professor Milad Doueihi; Eugenia Mitchelstein of the Universidad de San Andrésand; and Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia.
The second day of the conference will begin with a panel discussion on belonging, examining how digital media practices in the Global South allow us to rethink bodily autonomy, online activism, the politics of race and racism, and global meme cultures. The panel will feature Northwestern Qatar Professor Heather Jaber; Giang Nguyen-Thu, research fellow at the University of Queensland; Zhejiang University Professor Jian Xiao; and Sulafa Zidani, assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A panel on work will feature a presentation on the datafication of everyday life in Africa and the Global South by the University of Massachusetts Professor Seyram Avle, another on the Turkish drama industry in the digital age by Ergin Bulut, associate Professor at Koç University, and one on the agency and precarity of platformized delivery and ride-hailing workers in the Philippines by Cheryll Soriano, Professor of Communication, De La Salle University. The panel will also feature a presentation on the history of digital evolution in the Middle East delivered jointly by Northwestern Qatar Professor Joe Khalil and Georgetown University in Qatar Professor Mohamed Zayani.
Hamad Bin Khalifa University Professor Marc Owen Jones, Admire Mare of the University of Johannesburg, Virginia Tech University’s Fernanda Rosa, and Emiliano Treré, reader at Cardiff University, will join a panel on data, examining the global politics of information circulation with a focus on decolonizing data, the governance of internet protocols, and how to achieve data justice in the age of digital platforms and massive datafication.
The last panel on infrastructure will touch on themes of digital infrastructure, data sovereignty, platformization, and network dependency. It will feature George Mason University Professor Hatim El-Hibri, Sebastián Lehuedé, postdoctoral Scholar at the Centre of Governance and Human Rights at the University of Cambridge, University of Pennsylvania Associate Professor Rahul Mukherjee, and Helga Tawil-Souri, associate professor at New York University.
Southern Digitalities will take place in conjunction with the Dean’s Global Forum with Gita Manaktala, editorial director of the MIT Press, who will discuss her career in university press and scholarly publishing in the digital age in a conversation with Dean Marwan M. Kraidy. For more information, click here.
The last panel on infrastructure will touch on themes of digital infrastructure, data sovereignty, platformization, and network dependency. It will feature George Mason University Professor Hatim El-Hibri, Sebastián Lehuedé, postdoctoral Scholar at the Centre of Governance and Human Rights at the University of Cambridge, University of Pennsylvania Associate Professor Rahul Mukherjee, and Helga Tawil-Souri, associate professor at New York University.
Southern Digitalities will take place in conjunction with the Dean’s Global Forum with Gita Manaktala, editorial director of the MIT Press, who will discuss her career in university press and scholarly publishing in the digital age in a conversation with Dean Marwan M. Kraidy. For more information, click here.
