WS 694 Technology, Migrancy and Globalization Summer 2004 _______________________________________________________________________ see links from http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik for updates. Instructors: Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University Annapurna Mamidipudi, Dastkar Andhra Bowling Green State University Campus meetings May 12 through June 2nd noon to 5 pm M-F International Online analogue meetings will be scheduled once the participants have been identified and accepted duration May 12 through June 2nd. _____________________________ General Description: Technologies and their uses have shaped and in turn been shaped by dominant production processes, community practices and cultural activities throughout history. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the practices of travel and communication fostered by modern and postmodern modes of work and play through an engagement with digital technologies. Therefore this course - put it very broadly - examines various issues regarding labor, migration and globalization at the intersection of the digital and the analogue, by attempting to juxtapose various cultures of production locally and internationally in an effort to show how technology, migrancy and globalization are linked to our everyday lives whether in the US or in India. The specific context(s) of instruction and dialogue: One of the instructors will bring an academic perspective and draw on her research and expertise with digital media and the other instructor will bring an activist/field-work perspective and draw on her expertise working with communities using weaving technologies in rural India. Both have published co-authored essays juxtaposing these contexts (see for instance Gajjala and Mamidipudi 1999, 2002, 2003 and forthcoming 2004). In this course, through various activities, virtual engagements, community related projects and lectures, we suggest a close examination of multiply mediated contexts of technology design and use as a model for understanding the scope for empowerment of underprivileged women and men through information communication technologies. We will use several available digital and distance technologies for interaction (webcams, moos whatnot). Process: Part of the workshop is designed as a virtual engagement between two groups of people from different geographical locations. The two instructors are geographically situated in different parts of the world one is teaching from Bowling Green Ohio, USA and the other is teaching from Hyderabad, India. There will be workshop participants from both locations. Each group will also have some on-site activities and a required field visit to a local site where technology, migrancy and globalization intersect. Students will have to draw concepts and understandings based readings, discussion, lectures and other class activities to produce a final project that can be delivered in one - or a combination of the formats specified in this syllabus. The course will be delivered in six modules one module per week both online and on-site (students in BGSU will be meeting in the computer lab as scheduled and students in Hyderabad will be meeting as determined by the on-site instructor there) STUDENTS NOT RESIDING IN BOWLING GREEN, OHIO ARE ALSO ENCOURAGED TO REGISTER PLEASE CONTACT radhik@bgnet.bgsu.edu for further information on how to do so.