As technologies migrate to distant corners of the globe, so too do the utopic imaginaries with which they are proselytized. What this constructs is a dynamic all too common in the history of science and technology, where a limited set of practices, values, and ways of knowing end up dominating the discourses by which we understand technology. As a result, many contemporary pundits of media studies either see new media technologies as inherently revolutionary or simply dismiss them as the fetish of Silicon Valley.

Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan’s story takes us out of this unfortunate binary. He argues that what is far more interesting is the study of the ways in which local communities on the margins worldwide actively re-purpose, appropriate and subvert new technologies to empower agendas that may radically diverge from their originally intended notions of use. In collaboration with indigenous communities in the United States, rural villages in India, and activists in Egypt, he has explored and uncovered methods by which local creativity and design can empower grassroots economic, cultural and political visions. For us to think globally about new technologies, we must remember the power of the local.

Ramesh Srinivasan, associate professor at UCLA in Information Studies and Design-Media Arts, is a scholar of media and culture – studying the modes by which new media technologies shape and are shaped by social, cultural, economic, and political dynamics. He has worked with a variety of communities ranging from activist bloggers to rural Indian communities to indigenous peoples worldwide.

Dr. Srinivasan’s studies of bloggers and activists has focused on participants in recent revolutions in Egypt and Kyrgyzstan. His work in India has involved collaborations with rural and urban disenfranchised populations in India to study how media literacy may shape collective action. And his work with Native American communities considers how non-Western understandings of the world can introduce new ways of looking at technological design and deployment.

His media appearances include several TEDx talks, National Public Radio, Al Jazeera, The Young Turks and Public Radio International. He has also published pieces for Al Jazeera English, the Washington Post, and theHuffington Post.

His work bridges cultural studies from anthropological and sociological perspectives with key topics in design and computer sciences. He is currently working on a book that looks at power, voice and identity in an era where digital media technologies are increasingly ubiquitous.

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