How is the centuries-old practice of caste being re-manifested in today’s digital cultures? How can we make a truly caste-sensitive media and internet? To understand caste and explore how our approaches to it must reflect its current realities, APC is hosting a series of lectures titled “Decolonising media, communication and technology studies: An (anti)caste perspective”.
The series will be presented by Dr. Murali Shanmugavelan, a Faculty Fellow of Race and Technology at Data and Society, whose focus has been on the disavowal of caste in media and communication studies and digital cultures.
These presentations will explore the concept and practice of caste and how it reinforces discriminatory social hierarchies that affect more than one-fifth of the world’s population. While caste originated in South Asia, it manifests itself in digital cultures in various forms, including caste-based hate speech, casteism in public data initiatives, and discriminatory practices in online platforms.
The presentations will look specifically into how caste is studied and analysed in the current context of media and technology and make recommendations on new approaches to fully understand caste and analyse how it affects societies across the world. The series will also discuss the embedded caste-ness in today’s technology, the silence from technology companies on issues of caste, and ways towards building a caste-sensitive internet.
The presentations will look specifically into how caste is studied and analysed in the current context of media and technology and make recommendations on new approaches to fully understand caste and analyse how it affects societies across the world. The series will also discuss the embedded caste-ness in today’s technology, the silence from technology companies on issues of caste, and ways towards building a caste-sensitive internet.
This lecture series is part of our project Challenging hate narratives and violations of freedom of religion and expression online in Asia (Challenge), funded by the EIDHR, which focuses on freedom of expression and religion in South and Southeast Asia, and on understanding and countering hate speech online by generating narratives and discourses that defend diverse opinions. Information about the first edition of the Challenge lecture series can be found here.
Catch the second Challenge lecture series on these dates:
1. Friday, 6 August 2021 – Part I: Dewesternising media, communication, and technologies research
2. Friday, 13 August 2021 – Part II: A proposal for caste-ing out media
3. Friday, 20 August 2021 – Part III: Building a caste-sensitive internet
All sessions will start at 9:00 UTC followed by a discussion from 9:30 to 10:00 UTC. Register here.
This lecture series is being organised by the Challenge project, which is funded by the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights.
