Bio:
“Bish Sen is originally from India, and claims to be the only Indian who doesn’t know how to code. He received his Ph.D in Communications from the University of Illinois. His research interests include mass communications, global media studies and new media theory. His most recent publication Digital Culture and Politics in Contemporary India: The Making of an Info-nation looks at the impact of the digital revolution within the context of a rapidly developing society.”
Three new media related books I would recommend:
Alan Winfield. Robotics: A Very Short Introduction
Robert Merges. Justifying Intellectual Property
Lev Manovich, Software Takes Command
History & Theory in New Media:
Dr. Sen will be teaching the required NMCC course “History & Theory of New Media” this spring. Students will get a chance to read about different approaches and theories within new media each week, including topics like computation and technology, networks, digital capitalism, digital law, and more. There will also be the opportunity to present research lab projects in teams, conference style, in order to become familiar with the collaborative nature of new media. The following is an excerpt from the syllabus, courtesy of Dr. Sen:
“The digital revolution has brought about a massive transformation in communication and culture. This course will introduce students to the history of the new media as well as to the key theoretical issues that have emerged in their wake. During the term we will address some of the key categories that are specific to new media: computation, information, networks, machines & the artificial, mobile and social media as well examine how new media processes and practices have impinged upon and reconfigured crucial areas of social life – the law, the economy, self and identity, society and politics, and philosophy.”
A New Book:
Dr. Sen has recently published his book, Digital Politics and Culture in Contemporary India: The Making of an Info-Nation, which focuses on India’s “software miracle” and its emergence as nation that actively engages with new media and the information age. Check it out on Amazon!
“The relationship between information and the nation-state is typically portrayed as a face-off involving repressive state power and democratic flows: Twitter and the Arab Spring, Google in China, WikiLeaks and the U.S. State Department. Less attention has been paid to those scenarios where states have regarded information and its diffusion as productive of modernity and globalization. It is the central argument of this book that the contemporary nation-state, especially in the global South, is far from hostile to the current informational milieu and in fact makes crucial use of it in order to develop adequate modes of governance, communication and sociality in a networked world. This book focuses on India – an emerging country that has recently witnessed a ‘software miracle’ – to highlight the critical role informatics has historically played in the national imagination and to demonstrate how the state, private capital and civic society have drawn upon and engaged the precepts and protocols of the information age to fashion an ‘info-nation'”
Interested in being NMCC’s next Prof Pick? Email us!
