About Conference
"Digital Politics in Millennial India", hosted together by the IIIT Delhi and LMU Germany, invites scholars and digital media activists in India and researchers studying the Indian diaspora for an international symposium in Delhi to explore themes surrounding the topic of the conference. Together, we aim to unpack the Internet media as information sources, rumor machines, affective affinity spaces, vehicles of propaganda, and objects of state policy as they increasingly shape the political present. The unique focus on local and regional digital political cultures makes this a one-of-its kind even anywhere in India.
Keynote Speakers
Mark Allen Peterson
A former political journalist in Washington, DC, Dr. Mark Allen Peterson is Professor of Anthropology and Professor of International Studies. He has conducted fieldwork in Egypt, India and the U.S. He is the author of the books Anthropology and Mass Communication: Myth and Media in the New Millennium (Berghahn 2003) and Connected in Cairo: Growing Up Cosmopolitan in the Modern Middle East(Indiana University Press 2011) and co-author of International Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Global Issues (Westview 2014). Dr. Peterson specializes in global flows of culture, including news and entertainment media, marketing and consumption. He received his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1996.
Sofia Ashraf
Rapper | Content Creator
Sofia Ashraf began rapping at the age of 18 at Justice Rocks – a copy-left initiative by
Vettiver Collective that invites youngsters to express themselves on issues that
matter and uses the medium of performing arts and music to challenge corporate
globalisation, discrimination and hate politics. In 2015, they produced “Kodaikanal
Won’t” – a video addressing the mercury poisoning caused by a thermometer factory
owned by Unilever. The video garnered over 4 million views and resulted in the
multi-national company compensating 591 ex-employees.
She currently uses music and comedy to create content on social issues ranging
from gender, moral policing, environmental disasters and political injustice.
Sofia Ashraf Protest Music Playlist || Sista from The South Playlist
CONVENERS
Sahana Udupa
Professor of Media Anthropology, LMU, Germany
Aasim Khan
Assistant Professor, Centre for IT and Society, IIIT-Delhi
Shriram Venkatraman
Assistant Professor, Centre for IT and Society, IIIT-Delhi
