Forschungsprojekt: Die virtuelle zweite Generation
INVITATION to a CAPSTRANS seminar on:
The Indernet – Negotiating ‘Indianness’ in German
presented by
Dr. Urmila Goel
Visiting Scholar at the Asia Centre, University of New England
Venue: 19.1003
Date: Thursday 19 October
Time: 12.30-2.00
A light lunch will be served.
Abstract
The internet portal http://www.theinder.net, called the Indernet (merging the German word for Indians Inder with internet and thus making it the network of Indians), forms a virtual space of ‘Indians of the second generation’ for ‘Indians of the second generation’ in German-speaking Europe. Using transnational technology, a space has been created which is clearly geographically localised both by the use of language and the topics of content. While referring symbolically to an (imagined) ‘India’, the users’ practical point of reference is the Germany (Switzerland or Austria) which determines their everyday lives. Here they experience othering and exclusion; here they face the demands of univocal ‘national’ belongingness. The internet portal provides them with their own space in which they can explicitly and implicitly exchange their experiences and, in doing so, negotiate their own interpretations of ‘national’ belongingness. The paper discusses how ‘Indianness’ is imagined in German(y).
Bio-note
Urmila Goel is currently a visiting scholar at the Asia Centre of the University of New England in Armidale. She is a researcher in cultural and social anthropology affiliated to the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder, Germany. Urmila is working on the research project ‘The virtual second generation – On the negotiation of ethnicity on the internet’. Her research interests cover the construction of ethnic identities, othering and racism, second generation migrants, migration from South Asia to Germany as well as the role of the internet in this. For more information please visit www.urmila.de.
ENQUIRIES TO:
Dr Christine de Matos
Research Fellow
Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies (CAPSTRANS)