Conference: 'On Digital Crossroads: Media, Migration and Diaspora in a Transnational Perspective'

The rapid development of digital technologies has radically transformed ways of keeping in touch with home cultures and diasporic networks. Moreover, the notion of migration has undergone significant shifts, coming to signify imaginaries on the move which are not necessarily linked to geographical displacement.

Drawing from approaches from the humanities and social sciences (media theory, communication studies, learning sciences, gender studies, cultural studies, postcolonial theory, migration and transnational studies, among others), this conference will explore how the study of digitalisation and migration challenges existing notions of diaspora, identity, nation, family, learning, literacy, social networks, youth, body, gender and ethnicity, asking for new approaches and a rethinking of traditional social and cultural categories.

Conclusion of High Potential project ‘Wired Up’

The conference comes at the end of a five-year High Potential project, entitled ‘Wired Up: Digital media as innovative socialization practices for migrant youth’, carried out by the Faculty of Humanities (project leader Dr Sandra Ponzanesi) and the Faculty of Social Sciences (project leader Prof. Mariette de Haan) at Utrecht University, in collaboration with Vanderbilt University, USA (Dr Kevin Leander, Peabody College for Education). The project was funded by the Executive Board of Utrecht University to stimulate interdisciplinary research. See www.uu.nl/wiredup.

Keynote speakers

• Shakuntala Banaji
  London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
• Kirsten Drotner
  University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
• Radhika Gajjala
  Bowling Green State University, USA
• Eva Lam
  University of Northwestern, USA
• Lisa Nakamura
  University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA
• Liesbet van Zoonen
  Loughborough University, UK and Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands

More information: www.digitalcrossroads.nl 
Conference chair: Sandra Ponzanesi
Conference organiser: Fadi Hirzalla