Aditya Deshbandhu | University of Exeter (original) (raw)

Papers by Aditya Deshbandhu

Routledge eBooks, Apr 23, 2024

Journal of autoethnography, 2023

The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, Aug 4, 2023

The absence of an entry on digital humanities in the last volume of The Year’s Work in Critical a... more The absence of an entry on digital humanities in the last volume of The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory due to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the exacerbation of academic precarity (that was acknowledged in the editorial preface of the last volume) predicates that this chapter develop a narrative bibliography of notable scholarship in the digital humanities from both 2021 and 2022. Therefore the unprecedented circumstances that have extended the scope of scholarly review for this chapter beyond a single chronological year also provide the unique opportunity to not only ‘trace and expand upon currents in critical and cultural theory, and to engage in [the] areas’ key debates’ (Quinn and Ghosh, ‘Preface’ to YWCCT 2022) but also (and more importantly, one might argue) understand some of the radical thematic transformations brought about and anticipated by the legacies, presents, and futures of digital humanities within the supposedly ‘new normal’ of a post-Covid world. Through consolidating diverse conversations from varied contexts that are shaping contemporary digital humanities and in anticipating the futures of the discipline, this chapter locates scholarship in the digital humanities and related fields from the years 2021 and 2022 within the interconnected themes of resistive ontologies, organizations, and new directions in the digital humanities. While the focus remains on the scholarship produced within the aforesaid chronological period, our methodological attempt in this intervention has been to acknowledge and put into dialogue relevant contributions related to the three primary themes of analysis that may fall beyond the ambit of a specific period.

The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 2023

The absence of an entry on digital humanities in the last volume of The Year's Work in Critical a... more The absence of an entry on digital humanities in the last volume of The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory due to the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the exacerbation of academic precarity (that was acknowledged in the editorial preface of the last volume) predicates that this chapter develop a narrative bibliography of notable scholarship in the digital humanities from both 2021 and 2022. Therefore the unprecedented circumstances that have extended the scope of scholarly review for this chapter beyond a single chronological year also provide the unique opportunity to not only 'trace and expand upon currents in critical and cultural theory, and to engage in [the] areas' key debates' (Quinn and Ghosh, 'Preface' to YWCCT 2022) but also (and more importantly, one might argue) understand some of the radical thematic transformations brought about and anticipated by the legacies, presents, and futures of digital humanities within the supposedly 'new normal' of a post-Covid world.

Journal of Autoethnography, 2023

Please consider this short article1 an opening salvo of sorts that tries to address some of the m... more Please consider this short article1 an opening salvo of sorts that tries to address some of
the major concerns raised about doing game studies in a country like India. This is
a country in the Global South, a postcolonial one at that, where the practice of gaming
has been considered counter-productive and trivial for as long as I can remember. As
today’s India hurtles toward a digitally connected existence, the calls for a “digital India”
are not just espoused by the government machinery but also amplified, and magnified
through everyday policy measures like the Aadhaar2 and demonetization3 undertakings.
This essay is written in this contextual and temporal frame where I try to tie together
my observations and reflections as an active player of video games across platforms, as
a columnist/reviewer who has been writing on the gaming industry every week for the last
six years, and as a researcher who has been actively engaged with sections of India’s gaming
publics to conduct ethnographic research for the last decade. Thus, this autoethnographic
short essay not just reflects the challenges I faced doing game studies in India but also
focuses on why autoethnography should be an integral part of the research process if
someone wishes to study gaming in such a locale.

Springer eBooks, 2023

At a plenary session during the IAMCR 2014 Conference in Hyderabad, India, a diverse group of sch... more At a plenary session during the IAMCR 2014 Conference in Hyderabad, India, a diverse group of scholars recalled the influence of Stuart Hall on their individual intellectual journeys, a prelude to the announcement of an award in his memory. Hall had passed away earlier that year, at the age of 82. While this was a formal acknowledgment of Hall's contribution to the kind of critical scholarship in media and communication studies that the association has been home to, it also formed a neat complement to the two existing memorial awards in recognition of Dallas W. Smythe and Herbert I. Schiller. Unlike these scholars, however, Hall's relationship with IAMCR was less defined, and not as closely tied to the association's establishment and early development. Yet his influence can be seen in the many strands of work that run through the sections and working groups (WGs), and in IAMCR's core principles of inclusion and diversity. Hall's approach to media studies and cultural analysis stands along with Smythe's and Schiller's political economy approach as an important way to critically and thoughtfully resist what had, in the 1970s and early 1980s, become an overwhelmingly positivist discipline of communication studies (Fig. 33.1).

Mobile media and communication, Nov 28, 2022

Set in the context of India's second Covid-19 wave (April-June 2021), this article examines the t... more Set in the context of India's second Covid-19 wave (April-June 2021), this article examines the transformation of a WhatsApp group originally created to study a pool of fantasy sport players into a site of care, concern, and support. By using netnography and in-depth interviews to chart the various challenges faced by the study's participants, the article analyzes how key health information was curated, moderated, and shared by the group's participants during the period. Our findings indicate that during the Covid-19 wave, users of WhatsApp relied on the personal connections it offered as they found ways to make the platform their own. By harnessing WhatsApp's capabilities with regard to accessing and sharing essential information that was both timely and locationally relevant, users of the service found ways to stay informed in moments that were fraught with uncertainty. By analyzing the various ways in which the group's participants shared information with each other and outside of the group, this study argues that the insights obtained can be used to understand broader social realities and the possibilities offered by platforms such as WhatsApp that could help navigate the various challenges presented by the ongoing pandemic in the Global South.

Mobile Media & Communication, 2022

Annals of Geriatric Education and Medical Sciences

Journal of Leisure Research

This paper is set within the context of a rapidly urbanizing India with shrinking avenues of phys... more This paper is set within the context of a rapidly urbanizing India with shrinking avenues of physical play and social engagement. The loss of traditional play spaces has redefined leisure activities for youth beyond offline sites into online spaces. These newer leisure engagements including gaming, binge-watching and social media interactions are predominantly virtual and sedentary. This shift, and the restrictions in their physical movements, reduce youth interactions with their social and material environments. Operationalizing Soja’s “Thirdspace,” this paper argues that Pokemon Go generates hybrid habitats at the confluence of leisure, youth, and digital gaming. Through qualitative interviews and co-playing sessions, this study draws from an engagement experience pool spanning 400 h of gameplay with five respondents in the Indian context. It examines how the everyday leisure activities of youth in augmented environments can lead to new spatio-cultural meanings, redefine immediate social environments, and create dynamic possibilities for youth development.

Fantasy sport has risen in popularity in the last decade with the advent of web 2.0. As people fr... more Fantasy sport has risen in popularity in the last decade with the advent of web 2.0. As people from around the world watch sporting events today, the internet has become an ideal site to instantly disseminate results and achievements for avid fans and followers. This paper is an attempt to position fantasy sports in the realm of game studies, drawing from the specific case of fantasy football (soccer in North America). Borrowing from and building on Roger Caillois classical game typology, this paper seeks to arrive at a nuanced understanding of both fantasy sport as a game and the experience it offers to participants. By using an ethnographic approach, based on in-depth interviews and co-playing sessions, this study closely observes participants in-game performances in the Fantasy Premier League. By stitching together information from the interviews with observation of participants approaches and preferences along with the performance of their teams, this paper identifies the key de...

Gamevironments, 2022

This article examines if video games can be used to simulate future scenarios by charting the int... more This article examines if video games can be used to simulate future scenarios by charting the intersections of game studies, science fiction studies, and simulation. By analyzing games that are set in futuristic societies as sites that can be used to address concerns for the future, this article argues that video games’ unique form and structure as meta-media artifacts makes them an ideal site for simulating, showcasing, and experiencing possible trajectories of the future. This article builds on this argument by examining three games, namely Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (2016), Detroit: Become Human (2018), and Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), as texts and as ludo-narratological experiences. The futuristic realities put forth in the three games are examined using close-reading, formal game analysis, and an autoethnographic analysis of specific ludic experiences. This article looks at how games can simulate specific trajectories of the future by examining the various dimensions of socio-cultural interactions that are explicitly and implicitly presented in these game worlds. The subsequent analysis also reveals how issues of equality, identity, gender, religion, and the human body will most likely shape key points of contestation for humanity as it single-mindedly continues to chase a techno-utopian reality.

Annals of Geriatric Education and Medical Sciences, 2022

As the field of medicine tries to tap into various facets of gamification, the potential of video... more As the field of medicine tries to tap into various facets of gamification, the potential of video games and gaming-based interventions has become a hotbed of interesting activity in the Dementia circles of medical research. This paper, exploratory in nature is a bid to find common grounds for the fields of neurosciences, psychology, and psychiatry with the sub-field of ludology in a hope to find unique insights from the benefits of interdisciplinary research and extrapolating findings from gaming addiction. From the perspective of game studies, the paper will draw from elements of concepts like flow, immersion and engagement in a bid to understand the various tools that can be of use if people ailing from neurocognitive disorders were to engage in gaming activity. This paper will lay the framework that will enable the beginning of a matching gaming exercises based on cognitive deficits and psychological profiling of clients diagnosed with neurocognitive disorders and advance the fields of neurosciences and psychology. By combining the findings from existing studies and original work this paper will propose both a means to study the possible effects of gaming-based interventions and suggest ways to streamline and optimize the use of gamification in patient care. This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Routledge eBooks, Apr 23, 2024

Journal of autoethnography, 2023

The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, Aug 4, 2023

The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, 2023

Journal of Autoethnography, 2023

Springer eBooks, 2023

Mobile media and communication, Nov 28, 2022

Mobile Media & Communication, 2022

Annals of Geriatric Education and Medical Sciences

Journal of Leisure Research

Gamevironments, 2022

Annals of Geriatric Education and Medical Sciences, 2022

The study conducted by us looks at the role played by displayed pictures, an important part of th... more The study conducted by us looks at the role played by displayed pictures, an important part of the visual element of one’s online existence on social networking websites such as Facebook. The study then understands the importance of the display picture, the role it plays in the social networking experience and the kinds of images that users use as their respective display pictures. The data that was collected for our analysis was through a two-step process with both quantitative and qualitative phases employing a mix methods approach to research.
Our study through its findings then establishes how the display picture becomes not only a mere extension of one’s offline identity online but becomes paramount in order to create and validate the identity in a transparent cultural space such as Facebook. The study then also looks at the various trends that were prevalent in the way display pictures were selected or modified using editing software.
The other major area that our study delves into is how the idea of display pictures appeals to the female gender and how safe the female respondents felt in an anonymous space such as Facebook. (Zhao et al. 2008)

Routledge, 2020

This volume critically analyzes the multiple lives of the "gamer" in India. It explores the "ever... more This volume critically analyzes the multiple lives of the "gamer" in India. It explores the "everyday" of the gaming life from the player’s perspective, not just to understand how the games are consumed but also to analyze how the gamer influences the products’ many (virtual) lives.

Using an intensive ethnographic approach and in-depth interviews, this volume

situates the practice of gaming under a broader umbrella of digital leisure activities and foregrounds the proliferation of gaming as a new media form and cultural artifact;
critically questions the term gamer and the many debates surrounding the gamer tag to expand on how the gaming identity is constructed and expressed;
details participants’ gaming habits, practices and contexts from a cultural perspective and analyzes the participants’ responses to emerging industry trends, reflections on playing practices and their relationships to friends, communities and networks in gaming spaces; and
examines the offline and online spaces of gaming as sites of contestation between developers of games and the players.

A holistic study covering one of the largest video game bases in the world, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of cultural studies, media and communication studies and science and technology studies, as well as be of great appeal to the general reader.

GENDER, PLACE & CULTURE, 2021

This article examines representative games from Zapak.com: India’s most-popular gaming website (h... more This article examines representative games from Zapak.com:
India’s most-popular gaming website (highest number of
daily visitors) to conceptualize the relationship between
masculinity and colonialism within digital geographies, in
postcolonial spaces. Three of the four games chosen here,
Sleeping at the Meeting, Zombie Pirate and Yoga Teacher, are
representative of games categorized as ‘Girl’s Games’ on
Zapak.com: where the ludic engagement is limited to dressing
and undressing of white women in a variety of professional
or social contexts. The fourth game Bipasha’s Beach
Blaze is a continuation of such reductive stereotyping, albeit
in the different but culturally significant site of Bollywood.
The four games were selected using a case-study methodology
and represent discrete but related artifacts. Following
a survey of key literature, the authors address the limitations
of traditional game studies approaches and propose a replicable
methodology located at the intersection of two epistemic
frames: one of critical masculinity studies and the
other of ludology. Through analyzing the strategic ideologies
behind the production, circulation and the game-play
of these digital artifacts we argue that Zapak.com not only
enables online sexism but also becomes a representative
digital space where anxious performances of postcolonial
masculinity – that has its historical basis in India’s colonial
legacy – can be materialized. Further in highlighting the status
of these ‘Girl’s Games’ as artifacts that do not allow for
any substantial ludic or narrative involvement – we emphasize
the need to constantly interrogate digital spaces as
sites where hegemonic ideologies about race, gender and
colonialism are reproduced and reified.

Gender, Place & Culture, 2021