When: Wednesday, October 19, 2022, 1:00 PM - 2:00 PMWhere: GC204, Graduate Centre, Mile End Campus
Speaker: Dr Murali Shanmugavelan
Dr Murali Shanmugavelan, from Oxford Internet Institute (OII) will present at this seminar on building caste-sensitive digital culture.
Media, communication and technology studies, in recent decades, have responded to a much-needed set of critiques about the elision of race, gender and sexuality analyses in its research, theoretical and policy remit. Unfortunately, however, the same has not been accurate about caste, although caste affects a fifth of the world's population.
This lecture will make a case for developing a caste-sensitive method to identify a) embedded caste-hate speech in search engine results and b) caste(ist)-conversations, and c) organisational biases with regards to social media platforms. Pointing out the deafening silence of caste in the technology and international development sector, this lecture will offer specific policy recommendations for building a caste-sensitive internet.
Speaker biography
Dr Murali Shanmugavelan is a postdoc researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute and a Faculty Fellow, Race and Technology at Data and Society. His academic research is concerned with the disavowal of caste in media and communication studies and digital cultures. Murali is currently working on how digital cultures benefit from and perpetuate caste related hierarchies. He is also working on re-manifesting caste and social hierarchies in digital cultures such as caste-hate speech, open data and platform economies. At Data and Society, Murali’s research on everyday casteism on the internet aims to develop actionable policy recommendations and build pedagogic content about critical caste and technology studies. In addition, Murali has written numerous research and policy reports briefs on ICT policies, internet governance and caste-related digital cultures.