Concept Note
The digital revolution has fundamentally transformed how diasporic communities organize, mobilize, and contest their notions of identity and belonging across transnational spaces, creating complex arenas where competing narratives emerge and clash. This roundtable examines the dynamic interplay between voices and countervoices emanating within diasporic digital spaces, investigating how different narratives compete for legitimacy and influence in mobilizing community action. Of particular interest is how digital platforms serve as both enablers, amplifiers and battlegrounds where multiple interpretations of homeland politics, cultural authenticity, and diaspora rights are negotiated and contested. Additionally, it will explore strategies employed by marginalized and dominant voices within diasporic communities that challenge each other’s narratives and create mainstream/niche/alternative spaces for expression. The significance of this roundtable lies in its potential to enhance our understanding of contemporary diaspora mobilization, digital citizenship, and transnational activism. By using examples as varied as globally dispersed Bangladeshi students, Iranian feminists, US based Telangana movement participants, Ukrainian LGBTQI+ community, and Azerbaijani queer diaspora, this roundtable aims to bring these narratives together and discuss them, transnationally.
The roundtable is a first attempt at building a conversation to conceptualize the multiplicity of voices within the digital diasporas vying for space and legitimacy online. By bringing together scholars who have examined digital habitus, networked publics, and transnational belonging, we aim to collaboratively identify new research directions on the theme. Another aim of the roundtable is to discuss the methodological challenges and innovations required to study the complexities of platform architectures, algorithmic biases, and generational differences that influence the amplification of certain voices over others. By examining these competing narratives and their mobilization potential, the roundtable will deliberate on how digital media shapes collective trans/national and trans/regional action in an increasingly interconnected world.
Format
The roundtable will follow a discussion format, encouraging participants to reflect on key points using examples from the groups and communities they work with. It will be divided into two parts. The first part will explore the importance of studying both voices and counter-voices within digital diasporas, as well as the conceptual tools needed to analyze competing digital diaspora narratives. The second part will focus on the methodological challenges and innovations necessary for conducting such research.
Roundtable Speakers
Dr. Mitra Shamsi holds a PhD in Media and Communication Studies from University of Tehran and is currently a third-party research fellow at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS). Her research focuses on digital feminist activism in Iran, examining feminist discourses constructed both inside the country and within the diaspora. Her current project investigates women’s rights campaigners’ digital responses to nationalist narratives during the Women, Life, Freedom uprising.
Dr. Maryna Shevtsova is a Senior post-doctoral FWO Fellow at KU Leuven. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Humboldt University, Berlin, and is a Fulbright and Swedish Institute Alumna. Prior to starting her work at KU Leuven, she was an MSCA Co-Fund EUTOPIA Fellow at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. In 2022, she received the Emma Goldman Award for her work as a feminist scholar and human rights activist. Her research interests include LGBTQ rights, activism and digital activism in Central and Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus, queer migration, and anti-gender movements. She is currently working on the project on queer digital advocacy strategies in Ukraine against the background of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Dr. Hosna Shewly is a researcher affiliated with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam and the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at VU Amsterdam. Her scholarly work focuses on activism under authoritarian regimes and the dynamics of public spaces, encompassing both physical and digital realms. Her research critically examines the dual role of social media as a platform that fosters transnational solidarity across diverse governance structures while simultaneously being subject to authoritarian oversight. She conceptualizes these physical and digital sites of activism as emergent spaces that encapsulate novel forms of collective action and resistance.
Organizers (& Speakers)
Dr. Sanam Roohi is a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Internet Studies, Bochum, an associate fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut, Essen and serves as the co-editor in chief of Comparative Migration Studies. Her research focuses on social-spatial mobility linkages, embodied migration infrastructures, and transnational digital mobilization. She currently teaches at the University of Duisburg-Essen, is a working group leader of the COST Action European Network on International Student Mobility (ENIS) and a member of various academic bodies including IMISCOE and InZentIM.
Dr. Ramil Zamanov is a social anthropologist and a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Internet Studies, Bochum. They obtained PhD in Social Anthropology from Charles University in Prague. Dr. Zamanov is an interdisciplinary scholar of social anthropology, gender and queer studies and migration. Their PhD explored the queer community in Azerbaijan by studying the various issues of homophobia, queer nationalism and separation of the queer community. Their current research focuses on the Azerbaijani queer diaspora in Spain.
Programme
09.30: Coffee and welcome
10.00: Introduction to CAIS and the roundtable by Dr. Esther Laufer
10.15: Part 1: Conceptual tools to study competing narratives for diasporic mobilizations
Discussants: Dr. Mitra Shamsi, Dr. Maryna Shevtsova, Dr. Hosna Shewly, Dr. Ramil Zamanov
Moderator: Dr. Sanam Roohi
11.00: coffee break
11.20: Part 2: Methodological challenges and innovations required to study voices and countervoices digitally
Discussants: Dr. Mitra Shamsi, Dr. Maryna Shevtsova, Dr. Hosna Shewly, Dr. Sanam Roohi
Moderator: Dr. Ramil Zamanov
12.05: Q&A with the audience led by Dr. Sanam Roohi
12.45: Final reflections led by Dr. Ramil Zamanov
13.00: End of the programme and lunch for invited participants
Registration
Please register here!