[Urbanstudy] URPP Lecture, Mathangi Krishnamurthy, "How to Do Things with Bits and Bytes"-10.30 am on Tue 13 Mar. 2012 in Conf. Hall 1

[Carol Upadhya]

>
>
>
> *Urban Research and Policy Programme, NIAS*
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> *Lecture Announcement*
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>
>
>
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> "How to Do Things with Bits and Bytes"
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> by
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> *Dr. Mathangi Krishnamurthy*
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> Andrew W.Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
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> Institute for Research in the Humanities
>
> Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology
>
> The University of Wisconsin-Madison**
>
>
>
> has been organized on* *
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> *Tuesday, 13 March 2012 at 10.30** AM** in Conference Hall-I*
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> National Institute of Advanced Studies
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> Indian Institute of Science Campus
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> Bangalore-12
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>  Chairperson: *Prof. Carol Upadhya*
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>
> *Abstract:*  My project looks at the meaning of information in urban
> India in an age of Information Technology (IT), in order to understand and
> explore the kind of desires that animate workers’ participation in the
> Indian call center industry. I look at the Indian version of the popular
> game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” (Kaun Banega Crorepati),
> documentaries and other media coverage on Indian call centers, and
> interviews from call center workers in order to deconstruct the will to
> work in the Indian outsourcing industry. Through these sites, I ask as to
> the infrastructural and material content of the “IT” discourse. How do
> shiny buildings, nightly roads, large corporate campuses, happy people,
> self-help books, movies, teleserials, and swanky billboards animate the
> possibility of information technology? I argue that these sites of urbanity
> function as the nuts and bolts of the aura of information, thus making
> desirable the prospect of call center work. Urban space in cohort with IT
> work becomes in my analysis the communicative springboard for an optimistic
> future even as such a vision sidelines everyday danger, small apocalypses,
> and erosion of the city and the worker’s body.
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>
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> *About the Speaker:* Mathangi Krishnamurthy received her PhD in
> Anthropology and Cultural Studies from The University of Texas at Austin in
> 2010. She has published articles in the Anthropology of Work Review and her
> essay on accent and language training in the call center is part of an
> edited volume on the changing modalities of English language usage in
> India. Krishnamurthy holds degrees from Pune University, Mudra Institute of
> Communications, Ahmedabad, and The University of Texas at Austin. Her work
> has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the
> American Association of University Women, and the South Asia Institute at
> the University of Texas at Austin. Her primary research interests are in
> the anthropology of globalization and work, urban studies, consumption, and
> gender. She also looks at the social life of communication technologies.
>
>
>
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> For more information, please contact: Prof. Carol Upadhya
> carol.upadhya at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
> K S Rama Krishna
>
> --
> N.I.A.S., I.I.Sc Campus
> Bangalore 560012
> Ph:   2218 5000
> Fax: 2218 5028
> Email: niasoff at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
>


-- 

Carol Upadhya
Professor
School of Social Sciences
National Institute of Advanced Studies
Indian Institute of Science Campus
Bangalore 560012
India

office:  +91 80 2218 5000/ 5141 (ext)
cell:      +91(0) 97408 50141

carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in
carol.upadhya at gmail.com

Programme Co-Director, *Provincial Globalisation: The Impact of Reverse
Transnational Flows in India's Regional Towns
*
*http://www.nias.res.in/research-schools-socialsciences-provincial.php*
*http://www.provglo.org/

*Anchor, NIAS Urban Research and Policy Programme*
*
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