Digital Media: Issues of Theory and Practice

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

Digital Media: Issues of Theory and Practice examines the impact of digital technologies on contemporary Russian culture and politics. Among the issues discussed at the roundtable are the effects of political use of social media sites and the role of digital memory in construction of national narratives. The panel examines the phenomenon of Russian GIFs and their impact in demonstrating political discent; it looks at database documentaries and post-modern concept of archival fever which aims at totality of preservation. It examines digital initiatives as a place for reconstructing of Soviet traumatic past, e.g. Virtual Museum of Gulag. Another question discussed is Ramzan Kadyrov’s Instagram account and its role in his attempts to further increase control over the local population.

Sub Unit

• Digital Humanities

Chair

• Daria Shembel, San Diego State U

Roundtable Members

• Gregory Alexeivich Dolgopolov, U of New South Wales (Australia)

• Valeriya Kalkina, U of Canterbury (New Zealand)

• Elena Anatolyevna Rodina, Northwestern U

• Daria Shembel, San Diego State U