Dr. K. Satyanarayana is Professor in the Department of Cultural Studies at the English and Foreign Language University, Hyderabad, India. He co-edited two volumes of new Dalit writing: No Alphabet in Sight (2011), Steel Nibs Are Sprouting (2013), as well as Dalit Studies (2016) and most recently, Dalit Text (2020). He coedited (with Joel Lee) a new volume Concealing Caste; Passing and Personhood in Dalit Literature (forth coming in 2022). His research interests are in the fields of Dalit studies, literary history, and cultural theory. He is a regular commentator on Dalit issues in the media and public forums.

“Critical Caste and Technology Studies (CCTS) is proposed as a new site of critical analysis of caste in the modern world of mass media and Digital technologies. Invoking Cultural theorist Stuart Hall’s assumption that communication takes place in a social and cultural context, it is argued that caste reconfigures and resurfaces in a new mould in the context of new media and digital cultures in South Asia. The syllabus of CCTS brings together anti-caste debates, perspectives and critiques in the fields of anthropology, sociology, Development studies, race and caste studies, media and feminism. It engages with the critical caste studies and redefines caste as a communication practice. In other words, caste is redeployed in the field of communication studies and then a fresh reading of the media and digital communications is proposed. This innovative approach enables the students/readers to interpret the meanings of insidious forms of caste violence (symbols, speech and practices) and make sense of the complex forms of cultural meaning of caste in the digital societies. The syllabus of CCTS highlights the urgency and critical significance of reading the media and digital communications in contemporary South Asia. It engages with the nascent critiques of digital spaces and technologies in South Asia and aims to ‘educate’ the students and the public in general.”