media, information, the contemporary
Feature

Call for Proposals: Short Term Research Projects in Social and Digital Media

The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi, invites proposals from individuals for research projects on contemporary social and digital media, its ecologies and histories. Selected research proposals will be supported with a short-term grant for six months, and the researchers will present their studies in a workshop at Sarai-CSDS at the end of the period.

Themes

We are interested in the following themes:

  • Unpacking Obscenity
  • Memes, ‘Selfies’, Lists, and Viral Content
  • New media effects and violence
  • Digital Money
  • The legal archive of new media
  • Platform: Design, participation, revenue, alternatives
  • Media streams: Delivery and distribution of media (cinema, news, music, images)
  • Censorship, government and commercial regulations and public campaigns.
  • Intermedia junctions: screen cultures, interface design, data streams
  • Memory: Storage, databases, retrieval, devices
  • Online media as archive
  • Issues of privacy/disclosure
  • Social media campaigns: Organized politics, petitions, performance, and activism
  • Practice-based research on software and multimedia platforms
  • Mobile phone culture and effects
  • Rural Landscapes after New Media.

In select cases, applications from themes beyond the above list will be considered.

This research project takes inspiration from the pioneering Sarai Independent Fellowship programme that initiated and supported a host of individual researchers working on contemporary culture.

Conditions

Like the previous programme, we propose to mobilise collaborative models of research: we expect selected researchers to interact both with Sarai’s in-house research group and a larger community, and deposit their materials in the Sarai archive for public access and use.

  • Researchers can be based anywhere in India, but will contribute regular research updates through postings on the online forum at the Sarai website. There will be a final paper and presentation in a workshop at Sarai/CSDS, Delhi.
  • Applicants should have an Indian Bank Account and Income Tax PAN in her/his name.
  • The research project will be available for up to six months and for a maximum amount of Rs. 1,00,000/-.
  • The research projects will run from May 1, 2015 to October 31, 2015.

Application Details

Applicants need to send:

  • Research proposal of maximum of 1,000 words
  • Brief Work-plan
  • Comprehensive CV
  • Two work samples (can include writing samples or practice-based media)

Please email the documents mentioned above as separate PDF files to dak@sarai.net with “Application for Short Term Research Project” as the subject header.

Last date for applications: April 12, 2015

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