Payal Arora
@3Lmantra
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Prof @UniUtrecht Cofounder @FemlabC I "Next Billion champion” @Forbes @TEDx I Award Winning Author I NEW 'From Pessimism to Promise' @mitpress @HarperCollinsIN
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Joined August 2010
🎉Best wishes for 2025! Hitting the ground running with the 4th book tour of my @mitpress @HarperCollinsIN book 'From Pessimism to Promise,' longlisted for the @porchlightbooks award, taking me this time to Rotterdam, Pune, Cologne, Paris, Chicago, & Amherst!
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Our Open Access ebook with @AmsterdamUPress is out - a beautiful culmination of our 3 year @IDRC_CRDI grant on the #FutureOfWork in the #GlobalSouth ! Click the link for free access to the pdf: 1/3
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JOB NEWS🧵On January 1, 2024, I will start my new position as Professor in 'Inclusive AI Cultures' at Utrecht University's Media and Culture dept. @UniUtrecht @UUMediaCulture . This is auspicious timing! 2024 marks 15 years in the Netherlands, a country I have come to call home.
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New year, new job 🎆 Starting today, I will serve as a Professor of Inclusive AI Cultures at @HumanitiesUU Utrecht University. Here is to fresh beginnings and wishes for a peaceful and prosperous new year for everyone! #newstart #NewYear2024
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Thrilled to see my book selected as one of "the most interesting, thought provoking books on science and technology we can find" by @engadget - Top 5 in the "Technorati top 100" and reported by Time for being one of the "best blogs" on tech.
In The Next Billion Users @3Lmantra reveals the colonial roots of government surveillance, its role in reinforcing societal disequilibrium, and explains how the modern technological marvels of our #digital age might exacerbate these problems. @engadget
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Joining the chorus to celebrate the hardcopy version of the #OpenAccess book 'Feminist Futures of Work' by @AmsterdamUPress edited with @usharaman & @R_Koenig & amazing contributors of experts from diverse fields! 1/3
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Happy to announce my new academic home/position as Professor & Chair in Tech, Values & Global Media Cultures at the Phil School at Erasmus University! Big thanks to @mireillemoret @jud1ths1mon José van Dijk @josdemul @ArjunAppadurai Hub Zwart, Rutger Engels for their support!
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Good news on the grant front. @usharaman & I have received funds from @IDRC_CRDI for a 3 year ethnographic project in Bangladesh & India to develop a scalable model for collectivization through digital platforms by reforming communication practices between women workers & brands
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Woke up to the news that our team won the #ICA23 "Outstanding Article of the Year" for our paper "Open Science, Closed Doors?" published with @JournalofComm !!! Access to article: 1/3
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Am incredibly excited to share the big news on my #newbook in contract with two fabulous publishers - @mitpress & @HarperCollinsIN This comes at a perfect time as I have been awarded the residency fellowship at Bellagio, Italy by @RockefellerFdn 1/5
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📢 Call for papers/abstracts for those interested in reimagining, building and deploying technologies that are inclusive and compatible with values of societal and planetary justice. Deadline is January 26th! Organized by @networkinstvu . Hope to see you there.
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For those interested in how young creatives are learning with new design & media tools in the Global South, and reshaping the creative sector, check out our NEW PUBLICATION ! .#medialiteracy #creators #Designers #India
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📢 New publication 1/3: @usharaman & I have an article out on #Feminist design principles for the #FutureOfWork in the @ComputerSociety geared towards computer scientists committed to inclusive tech.
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Just got a hold of my PhD student & @FemlabC research lead Pallavi Bansal”s dissertation book on feminist approaches to the ride hailing sector & it’s beautiful. A precious moment! Congratulations @pallavibansal9 & best of luck on the November defense!
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My work on "Politics of Algorithms, Indian Citizenship, & the Colonial Legacy" is out alongside these fantastic scholars/editors in the newly published book with @UofMPress 'Global Digital Cultures' AND the best part is its free to download!!
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Starting my first day at @HumanitiesUU @UUMediaCulture with the fabulous @annettemarkham at the lovely faculty club 🙂
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Heading for my #sabbatical shortly which should be full of joy. I should be grateful to even have a sabbatical but here are some thoughts #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter 1/8 👇
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For #Dutch readers, my article is now out @nrc on critiquing @rcbregman & his myopic worldview of #RaceRelations sadly resulting in another #GreenBookMovie deal with @NewRegency . History repeats itself, ironically at the hands of a historian! .
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My relationship with @HumanitiesUU @UUMediaCulture is now public :) Excited to start this journey with folks at @UniUtrecht and beyond:
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Best #Christmas gift ever! After 3 flight cancellations for my mum, I finally have her here in #amsterdam ! I am sure international workers will relate to me when I say this 1/2
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Look what arrived today 🙂 cannot thank my editors @_sen_sharmila @birdmaddgirl enough @Harvard_Press for making this happen! Grateful for the generous endorsements by @shaunwiggins @justinvanfleet @MKraidy @lemos_ronaldo ! ❤️
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My first virtual keynote. interesting times, interesting measures. Looking forward to virtually engaging with the #ICT4D community!.
"Privacy by Design for the Next Billion" – Join in for a keynote session by Payal Arora, award-winning author, digital anthropologist & professor from .@erasmusuni at #IDIA2020 on March 26 / 07h30 (UTC). @3Lmantra. More about the keynote ➡️ #ICT4D #privacy
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My new article out now with the @SurvSoc_Journal critiquing #GDPR as a #Global Standard- Privacy Futures, Digital #activism & #surveillance cultures in the Global South:
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If interested in visual digital cultures, I will be giving a keynote this Friday for the VISUALITY AND CYBERCULTURE - BEYOND BIOPOLITICS event by ICMA Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Art UNAGE Iași. Other keynotes by the fabulous @markdeuze Jan van Dijk & Ryan Milner
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A new article in @TheEconomist draws extensively from my @Harvard_Press book -"According to Payal Arora, a professor at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the internet is the leisure economy of the world’s poor"
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At the Schiphol airport & found the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung @faznet German paper interview on my book #nextbillionusers @Harvard_Press :) @erasmusuni @eshcc_eur For those who read German here's the link to the article:
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📢 1/4 New Policy Report out with @UNUniversity Was wonderful to work with experts on #AI on this first of its kind technical & policy recommendations on synthetic data #Governance to help attain the #SDGs This aligns with my work at @HorizonFINDHR @UUMediaCulture @HumanitiesUU.
Read this latest policy guideline by @tmarwala @3Lmantra @prof_fbln @YikChanChin @MamelloThinyane @SergeStinckwich @eleonoreft . 👉
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Scholars doing work at the intersection of feminism, diverse values in design & decolonizing tech, please consider submitting to the Special Issue that @ruchowdh & I are co-editing. We are super excited to push this agenda forward & by engaging with scholars in this area!.
‼️Call out to my feminist and anti-colonial HCI/STS scholars‼️ @3Lmantra and I are co-editing a special edition of Global Perspectives on Cross Cultural Feminist technologies. Accepting abstracts until October 31st.
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Happy to announce that our project 'Fairness and Intersectional Non-Discrimination in Human Recommendation (FINDHR)' has been selected for funding within the @HorizonEU Program. It's a multi-million euro, 3-year funded project & will take place from end 2023 to 2025 1/4
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I am looking for a #postdoc with expertise in #AIethics to join us to tackle discrimination in AI based recruitment. If you are excited to work with industry and policy makers to shape #inclusivedesign , & interested in taking a cross-cultural approach check this call out 1/2.
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At a recent faculty meeting, a new metrics was shared with the research staff, visualizing our productivity in relation with one another to “inspire for collaboration” & gain insight into one another’s work. Couple of things 1/9: @AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter.
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My OpEd is out in @HetFinancieeleDagblad on how 'Tech companies underestimate the power of the global South.' Some key takeaways ⬇ 1/4 .@HumanitiesUU @UUMediaCulture .
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@BrainsExplained Not to forget the title “Assistant” professor - makes no sense. Assistant to whom? Are they not full fledged scholars? Many of them are in fact more of an expert than their outdated Professorial colleagues.
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Speaking at the Data Summit next week as we tackle questions on algorithmic decision-making, #data auditing, #ethical policy management of data-driven healthcare, role of human judgement in the age of #ArtificialIntelligence . Sign up here to register
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So proud of my "EX" Phd student/current Doctor @SadragShihomeka :) What drive, what focus- succeeded in finishing his PhD in exactly 4 years & did much of it remotely, conducting 7 mts of ethnographic work on political engagement via digital media in rural Namibia!
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Looking forward to delivering this lecture and building synergies with folks at @CorpusCambridge and around! @UUMediaCulture @UniUtrecht @HumanitiesUU.
Please join us for the first Boutwood Lecture with Digital Anthropologist Payal Arora @3Lmantra 'The Next Billion Users: Internet Justice and the Global South'. Wed 24 Jan 17:30 - 19:00 in the McCrum Theatre. Book here:
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"Digital media consumption has become a critical way to keep their (low-income users) sanity, deal with their stress, & escape the tedium of a job that doesn't tap into their capability. It is an escape mechanism" My interview with @t2telegraph on the #nextbillion @Harvard_Press.
'As much of the next billion users have been long neglected, they are now enjoying the visibility and legitimacy as users in a marketplace.’ Payal Arora, the author of The Next Billion Users, on whether the Internet binds or divides. @3Lmantra
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Looking forward to engaging with the @FAccTConference community in Chicago soon!.
Our fourth keynote speaker is Prof. Payal Arora (@3Lmantra) from @erasmusuni. The keynote will take place on June 14. Register now:
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📢 Check out my Op-ed with @RevolveMediaCo 'Digital Inclusion Versus Planetary Good? A False Dichotomy' . REVOLVE is an award-winning quarterly magazine providing insights on #Sustainability #ClimateCrisis #circulareconomy #EnergyTransition.
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Could not ask for a better way to say goodbye to @erasmusuni ,my academic home of 14 years than with the successful PhD promotion of @pallavibansal9 ! A big congrats to the now Dr. Bansal on an interdisciplinary undertaking with @eur_philosophy & @eshcc_eur & a superb committee!
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For those in #Paris on May25, will discuss @UNESCO major publication release 'Ed-tech tragedy' with @evgenymorozov @shafikai . Time to debunk the #edtech hype as a solution to #education equity issues worldwide. Join us!.
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📢 Publication out with @lauramherman_ @oiioxford @UniofOxford for the @IASDRCongress on 'decolonizing creativity in the digital era' for those interested in how young creators from the majority world use design tools. Click link:
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Good to hear that my Next Billion book is the @AmericanPublish awards winner under the Business category. Love how digital anthropology has made in roads into the world of business and tech!.
Congratulations to all the 2020 @AmericanPublish winners. @Harvard_Press is the proud publisher of 7 of the winners across an extraordinary range of subject categories. 🎉@FrancoiseBaylis @MarcusduSautoy @3Lmantra @sally_nuamah @allofmilov #OrlandoPatterson and #MichaelTomasello.
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My @qz article on the myths on the #nextbillion users & why it matters to debunk them more so than ever before as we design future tech. @DesignUpConf
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Spec. Issue "Data-driven models of governance across borders: Datafication from the local to the global" ed. by @hallam_stevens & me is out in @first_monday! Fab papers by @rolienhoyng @geoplace Mohammad Amir Anwar @R_Koenig @LinaDencik @PhilippaMetcal2
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At my #IID21 talk I was asked by an audience member how I could expect "anecdotes" to help in decision-making vs data analytics @UNDP_innovation @UNDP . Got me thinking why & how #QualitativeResearch continues to be dismissed in policy & practice 1/5.
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Can women please be allowed to be human, normal, & flawed -a privilege enjoyed by men! The burdening of virtue & value on women's shoulders has long been used to oppress them.
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Starting the #ZEEJaipurLitFest2020 literally with a bang (taxi trunk opened & hit my forehead at the airport). Yet I am filled with awe as total strangers showed kindness & intimacy & served as jurors among themselves on the best remedies for me. How can one not love India :)
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Night and day, this place is filling my soul ❤️Grateful to be part of the April fellows cohort @RockefellerFdn #bellagio
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📢 Publication bonanza week for @FemlabC ! New Journal article with Kiran Bhatia & @hisidgupta on family ethnographies with edtech tools with the Journal of Learning, Media and Technology: .@UUMediaCulture @HumanitiesUU.
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Our paper from @FemlabC 's project on digital creativity in the Global south has been accepted for the #ICA24 . Thanks @DevinaSarwatay for taking the lead on this and the rest of the team for their contributions. More publications to follow soon we hope :) Stay tuned.
Starting the year with acceptance emails from @icahdq #ICA24.@3Lmantra @UWMShelat @lauramherman_ @hisidgupta @stuti_dalal @FemlabC @UniUtrecht @MICA_Ahmedabad @UniofOxford @CityUniSCC @CityUniLondon @icacamdivision
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"Chowdhury's appointment made Twitter's expressed commitment to algorithmic accountability and fairness much more credible" Absolutely! Thrilled to be working with @ruchowdh on our crosscultural feminist technology essay & issue with @GlobalPerspJnl 💪.
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A dutch philosophy student's evaluation of my #aibias class using @jovialjoy whitemask experiment & @safiyanoble work: "the course was very unbalanced in favor of evidence-based critique (don't know what else to call it, staying true to my heart, it felt mostly like whining. 1/4.
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All quiet on the Schiphol front. Good to be back home in Amsterdam! Miraculously managed to modify my flight from New York given the #coronavirus situation & travel disruptions. Looks like this is my last travel for sometime now.
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Heading out to Italy to discuss the future of AI, tech #innovation , #global #ethics and more at #RockefellerFoundation at Bellagio. Should be an interesting next few days with people from the tech, non-profit, & govt sector, artists, and futurists.
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For those interested in feminist approaches to designing tools and platforms in the ride-hailing sector, come see @pallavibansal9 in action as she defends her PhD thesis. In person at the @erasmusuni campus on Nov 3 or via the livestreaming link below.
Hi all! I will be defending my PhD thesis titled, ‘No Woman’s Land: Feminist approaches to the ride-hailing sector and location-based platforms in India’ on 3rd Nov at 10:30 am CET @erasmusuni . Here’s the livestreaming link: CC: @3Lmantra.
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Good to have the printed book in hand. Congratulations @firuzehsv @stanfordpress for this compelling read! So happy to see such overlap with @FemlabC
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I would caution students/scholars on 'Must Read' lists circulating on academic twitter as its akin to academic sororities/fraternities excluding the marginalized majority outside the US/UK default: circulating universalisms & normalizing Western scholarship dominance.
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My interview with @forumdc magazine is out where I address questions such as how digital tech can empower #GlobalSouth women, support #feminist causes, decolonize datasets, & AI literacies and more. 1/2
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Happy to be part of this stellar collection of essays! @usharaman & I have a piece here on FairWork Feminist Design & Women’s Labor Collectives. #feminist #design #globalsouth @TowardsFairWork @mitpress #OpenAccess.
My new book is out! . 🌍Digital Work in the Planetary Market 🌏. I was lucky to get to collaborate with @fabianlferrari as my brilliant co-editor, and 24 stellar chapter authors. The book is free and open-access <gt;. Also available in print from @mitpress
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Kickoff meeting begins of new grant project @HorizonFINDHR in Barcelona on Fairness & Intersectional non- discrimination in human recommendations. Looking forward to working with this group 🙌
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Folks interested in exploring human-centric data in practice, check out the program for the MyData Conf in Helsinki on May 31-June 1 Will deliver a keynote alongside CEO GaiaX Association for Data and Cloud Francesco Bonfiglio and CEO FIWARE Ulrich Ahle .
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Feels like my big fat indian academic wedding :) Speaker dinner for the India Science Fest that kickstarts tomorrow!
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📢Thrilled to share this wonderful conversation on Invisible Machines, one of my favorite podcasts on tech and design! We touched on ways to rethink design from a Global South perspective, drawing from my upcoming book @mitpress .link: @UUMediaCulture.
Is pessimism a luxury of the privileged? . Tune in as Payal Arora, author of "The Next Billion Users", joins Robb Wilson and Josh Tyson. Payal shares valuable insights on technology and innovation in the Global South.
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Hello Vienna ! There is no such thing as a humble welcome to this grand city !
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Thrilled to share the launch of the new website for our project on #feminist Approaches to Labour Collectives @IDRC_CRDI #FutureWork4All #futureofwork #feministeconomies #DigitalEconomy.
In our first blog post @3Lmantra & @usharaman write about the start of the FemLabCo project in times of #COVID19.
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"It is clear that free markets haven’t helped increase farm incomes.What the protesting Indian farmers are demanding -making a guaranteed price a legal right for farmers, therefore will resonate globally." #FarmerProtests @Fairfood.
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Shocking to hear that the English East India company hired indian soldiers to fight other Indians & financed by indian banks to take over the then richest country in the world - India. @DalrympleWill in action @JaipurLitFest #ZEEJaipurLitFest2020
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📢Folks working at the intersections of fairness and AI through an interdisciplinary lens, check out our upcoming conference in Amsterdam 19-20 March. Hope to see you there.
Excited to announce the AI Fairness Cluster Inaugural Conference & Workshop on AI Bias! . 🗓️ When: 19-20 March 2024.📍 Where: Science Park Congress Center Venue, Amsterdam 🇳🇱.Register now👉:
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"Thousands of women get excluded simply because they are never going to be called farmers. many girls and women have been pushed into the column of housewives. That is the easiest category to throw a woman in data collection."
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Super happy to share @FemlabC work & our @AmsterdamUPress open access book 'feminist futures of work' at @MaastrichtU 22-sept event. It's the Center for Gender & Diversity's 25th anniversary celebration with a fantastic program lined up. #feminist #femtech #intersectionality
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Finished my #IAMCR2019 #iamcr19 presentation but then I saw this! Next time I should try his way of engagement - would make conferences more interesting I think 😉
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Coming up - the Geomedia International conference at @TampereUni where I will keynote on aspirational geographies & AI futures in the Global South on 21 sept. Check out the full program here: #Geomedia2023 @sbasu_in @KaarinaNikunen
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Loved my engagements at @mydataorg #Helsinki ! Thanks @troppone & team for bringing such diverse orgs working on data, equity, & rights together! Until next time !
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📢For those interested in unpacking 'doing good' in the age of digital/ AI innovations, sign up for our roundtable discussion on 12 March. #aiforall .@HumanitiesUU @UUMediaCulture.
#DigitalGood from the #GlobalSouth - A roundtable conversation with Payal Arora, Jonathan Corpus Ong, and Ranjit Singh.Plus info about our #Fellowships.Tues 12 March 2024, 3PM – 4PM (UK time).Tickets: @3Lmantra @jonathan_c_ong @RanjitSinghCS @datasociety
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Being "modern" has become synonymous with tech, eclipsing the more radical side of modernity, that of re-configuring socio-cultural norms: "It also showed that ancient Hinduism was compatible with modernity, ready for a new technological and consumer age"
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What an absolutely warm reception! Loved the feedback from #DUp19 people during the book signing! Maybe we have a #Design for the #nextbillion movement in the making :) thanks everyone for sharing your stories and being so patient in line!.
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📢🧵New paper out with @pallavibansal9 & @usharaman on a #feminist #design framework for envisioning a gender-inclusive ride-hailing sector. Published by <AI & Equality>with @WomenAtTheTable in consultation with the United Nations human rights . Download:
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1/4 The new dean sent a broadcast email to all staff pretty much equating research excellence with the acquisition of grants. The obsession on the means and not the end (actual publications that impact society) continues in Dutch academia.
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For data driven decisions, we need data – but not just any data. Data should be quality-oriented, diverse, and culturally nuanced to make it computable, meaningful, impactful #BellagioAI.
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Disagree with @qzindia that language is the key barrier to the #NextBillionUsers getting online. In my @Harvard_Press book I argue how audio-visual entertainment related content is key to tech adoption
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"Our existence cannot be safeguarded in isolation, we can only survive together: my fate is yours, ours is theirs. Social media, for instance, has adopted terms such as “viral”. which demonstrate the dialogues between our bodies and minds"
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"Researchers absolutely should be activists. They should care about the consequences of their work as well as for society. But that does not mean they should sideline scientific principles in favor for the causes that move them.".
"Sympathy for a cause should never allure scholars to lose their critical edge" argues @R_Koenig in this week's blog post on the question: Should researchers be activists?.
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impressed by the diversity of professions of the #oromo audience here & their engagement with social issues. @OromoStudies.
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Looking forward to giving this keynote on the rise of the next billion & decolonizing tech design.
We're happy to announce that Dr. Payal Arora @3Lmantra, award-winning author, digital anthropologist & professor from @erasmusuni will be one of our #keynote speakers at #IDIA2020! For more info, visit Register by Feb 14 to enjoy #earlybird rates!. #ICT4D
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"Digitalisation and Transformations of Women’s Labour in Sanitation Work: An Indian Perspective," by @FemlabC research lead @_chinar_ & @FemlabC co-founders @usharaman & @3Lmantra.
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This is an exciting time for @FemlabC as we join forces with the I4T Global Knowledge Network @I4tknowledge -the @UNESCO Internet for Trust, a global network of Research Labs and think tanks gathering knowledge about Digital Platforms governance. @HumanitiesUU @UUMediaCulture
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Excited to be among this stellar group of #design leaders as I will speak about how the #NextBillionUsers are shaping future global UX Design & disrupting conventional notions of taste, desire, choice. Design matters even more so among low-income groups!.
Countdown to #DUp19 has begun. Our Festival site is live, finally. Check out our stellar speakers—a diverse, inspiring lineup, from Designers in C-suite to TEDx veterans, Authors, Ethnographers & importantly, change makers! More coming soon! See you in BLR
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Looking forward to speaking about @FemlabC @IDRC_CRDI funded initiative on women workers organizing digitally in India & Bangladesh as part of the timely #MinistryofChange event organized by @ricap_undp #womengigwork #gigeconomy.
For your radar- #MinistryofChange #EdgeSession w/ @3Lmantra @FemlabC + @ricap_undp to explore #FutureofWork from a grounded POV re: feminist approaches to labour collectives in #Bangladesh + #India More = fyi @alisonkilling @akrishnan23 @BelindaHlatshw2
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Looking forward to engaging with the @FAccTConference community in Chicago next week!.
We are very excited to present keynote speaker Dr. Payal Arora @3Lmantra co-founder of @FemlabC & Professor of Technology, Values & Global Media Cultures @erasmusuni on principles to guide feminist, worker-centered system design
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Thanks @Harvard_Press for this fantastic news of my book #Nextbillion Users getting translated into Chinese! Exciting new audience for this work!
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Heading to London today to give a keynote on the #nextbillion users & inclusion. So glad there is the Amsterdam-London speed train!.
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Thrilled to be among the global internet experts & activists invited to contribute to the @mozilla Foundation 's Internet Health Report 2020. Cool & interactive website/texts on gig work, transparency, algorithmic bias & more. Check it out!#internethealth
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Last keynote event organized by @uva_gdc & @UvA_Amsterdam Human(e)AI on July 18-19 before I disappear for the summer. Will talk on AI, & Data-driven journalism in the #globalsouth . The program looks amazing 1/2
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