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#IAS_NUQ’s InterAsian Digitalities initiative introduces new framework
The Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South at Northwestern University in Qatar (#IAS_NUQ) has introduced 'TransAsian digitalities' as a new framework for examining digital life beyond Western-centric epistemic genealogies.
From interAsian to transAsian digitalities, a special issue of First Monday, co-edited by #IAS_NUQ director, Clovis Bérgere and NU-Q dean and CEO, Marwan M Kraidy, reconceptualises Asia as a dynamic, interconnected formation defined by relationships, continuities, divergences, and differences rather than fixed geographic boundaries. Founded in 1996, First Monday is one of the earliest openly accessible, peer-reviewed journals dedicated to Internet research.
This special issue is the culmination of the two-year InterAsian Digitalities initiative at #IAS_NUQ, a sub-project launched in spring 2023 of the Institute’s core research theme, Southern Digitalities. It was developed through workshops, panels, and conferences in Australia, Lebanon, New Zealand, Qatar, and the United States, alongside the Arab Council for the Social Sciences’ InterAsia Partnership.
"We are shifting to TransAsian digitalities because we believe the prefix trans-, which reflects forces operating across and within different nation-states, socio-cultural spheres, and domains of political and economic activity, rather than simply between them, as inter- suggests, better reflects the interdisciplinarity and transnationalism inherent in our approach, and better captures the excellent contributions in this special issue,” noted Kraidy, and Bergère, in the co-authored introduction.
The special issue brings together five research papers and a reflection essay authored by #IAS_NUQ fellows, affiliates, and international scholars, illustrating how perspectives grounded in Asia and the Global South are reshaping the study of the digital. Together, these works move beyond the critique of Western-centric epistemologies to propose new ways of understanding digital life that arise from the region’s own histories, networks, and intellectual traditions.