The Department of English and Cultural Studies, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Pune Lavasa Campus, in collabZZoration with the Nucleus of Learning and Development, organized an Online National Professional Development Programme (PDP) on “Narrating Tech-Displacement: Understanding Wired Diasporas through Select Digital Works”. The resource person Dr K Jayasree, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Velalar College of Engineering and Technology, offered an interdisciplinary exploration of digital diaspora studies, technology, migration, literature, and cultural studies.
The PDP focused on Digital Diaspora Studies, examining the sociopolitical, cultural, and existential implications of human displacement in an increasingly hyper-connected world. A central concept was “Wired Diasporas,” a contemporary cultural studies framework that combines the material realities of migration with technologies such as artificial intelligence, biometrics, and virtual borderlands. The programme introduced participants to theoretical perspectives from Digital Humanities, Border Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Literature, Electronic Literature, and Media Studies. The programme commenced on 10 September with “Mapping the Matrix: Digital Diaspora Theories & Geopolitics,” which introduced foundational theoretical approaches to digital displacement and global mobility. On 11 September, “Algorithmic Walls: AI Surveillance & Biometrics in Fiction” examined technological surveillance and biometric systems in literary and cultural narratives. This was followed with a session on “The Wired Canvas: Cyber-Exile & Electronic Literature (E-Lit)" conducted on 14 September that deep dived into aspects like displacement, digital creativity, and electronic literary forms.
The session on 15 September, titled “Virtual Homelands: Web 3.0 & Archiving Cultural Memory,” considered the role of digital spaces and emerging technologies in preserving cultural memory and creating alternative archives. The programme concluded on 16 September with “The Wired Classroom: Teaching Migration via Digital Humanities,” focusing on innovative pedagogical approaches to teaching migration, identity, human rights, and cross-border experiences through Digital Humanities methodologies. The theoretical scope of the PDP included the works and ideas of scholars such as Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, Shoshana Zuboff, Radhika Gajjala, and Achille Mbembe. Particular attention was given to algorithmic bias, cyber-exile, surveillance capitalism, necropolitics, technology-mediated memory, and digital forms of cultural belonging and resistance. These discussions encouraged participants to examine the changing relationship between technology, power, mobility, and representation.
The PDP aimed to equip participants with theoretical and methodological frameworks for analysing contemporary digital diaspora narratives and border experiences. It encouraged critical engagement with AI, algorithmic bias, and state surveillance from literary and postcolonial perspectives. Participants explored electronic literature, hypertext fiction, and digital art as forms through which displaced communities negotiate identity and belonging. The programme also highlighted Web 3.0 archives as tools for cultural preservation and counter-narrative formation while encouraging contemporary Digital Humanities pedagogies. The sessions also enabled participants to connect theoretical concepts with contemporary digital practices, encouraging interdisciplinary dialogue, reflective teaching strategies, and further research into technology, migration, and identity formation. Overall, the PDP provided an interdisciplinary platform for understanding how technology is transforming narratives of migration, displacement, identity, memory, and belonging in the contemporary world. It also fostered critical perspectives relevant to teaching, research, and scholarly engagement with emerging digital cultures and technologically mediated human experiences.
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