Concept Note

Two-Day International Conference (likely to be ICSSR Sponsored) on  “Loss of Indigenous Knowledge in the Age of Digital Humanities: Preservation, Power, and the Politics of Representation” (Hybrid Mode)

We are living in a time when almost everything is being converted into data. Stories are scanned into archives. Rituals are recorded and uploaded. Languages become searchable text. Maps are generated through software. Artificial intelligence now reads, sorts, and even interprets cultural materials. The growth of Digital Humanities has opened remarkable possibilities — widening access to knowledge and reshaping research in literature, history, linguistics, anthropology, and cultural studies.

And yet, beneath this excitement about innovation, there is a quiet unease.

Indigenous knowledge systems are not simply collections of information waiting to be digitized. They live in voices, in gestures, in landscapes, in relationships between generations. They are carried in memory, in soil, in community practices, in sacred spaces. When such knowledge is translated into databases and algorithms, something delicate can slip away — its context, its ownership, its spirit.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak once asked, “Can the subaltern speak?” In today’s digital world, we must ask a related question: even when the subaltern speaks, can they still be heard within systems shaped by dominant languages, corporate platforms, and algorithmic hierarchies?

Digital platforms are not neutral shelves that simply store culture. They are built within structures of power. As Nick Couldry and Ulises Mejias describe in The Costs of Connection, contemporary data practices can resemble a new form of colonialism — “data colonialism” — in which human lives and experiences become extractable resources. When indigenous songs, medicinal knowledge, or ecological wisdom are digitized without community control, preservation can quietly turn into appropriation. This is the tension at the heart of the proposed seminar. Digital tools promise to protect memory, yet they can also reproduce historical inequalities in new forms.

Across the world — including in South Asia — indigenous knowledge faces mounting pressures: globalization, declining languages, climate crisis, migration, and the gradual rupture between generations. Digitization is often offered as a solution. But preservation without participation can become another kind of loss. As Achille Mbembe reminds us, archives are “a matter of power and authority.” The crucial questions remain: Who decides what is preserved? Who controls access? Who benefits from circulation?

This conference seeks to slow down the rush of technological celebration and create space for more difficult conversations:

• Does digitization truly empower communities, or does it shift control elsewhere?
• How can digital humanities projects avoid reproducing epistemic violence?
• What might genuine ethical collaboration look like?

Rather than treating indigenous knowledge as fragile “heritage” frozen in the past, the seminar approaches it as living knowledge — dynamic, adaptive, and essential to environmental sustainability, community health, and cultural identity.

Significance of the Seminar

This gathering is not simply an academic exercise; it is an ethical commitment.

Walter Benjamin observed, “There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.” If that is true, then digital archives too must be examined carefully. What is made visible, and what remains invisible? What stories are amplified, and which are silenced?

By bringing together scholars, archivists, technologists, policymakers, and — most importantly — community knowledge-keepers, the conference aims to create not a space of extraction, but a space of listening. A space where digital innovation meets responsibility.

Expected Outcomes

The seminar intends to:

• Publish selected papers in an edited volume or special journal issue.
• Develop a policy white paper outlining ethical principles for digital archiving.
• Establish a collaborative research network focused on Indigenous Digital Humanities.
• Promote greater institutional awareness of culturally sensitive digitization practices.

Ultimately, the age of Digital Humanities asks us to rethink how technology and tradition meet. Indigenous knowledge is not raw data waiting to be captured. It is living memory, ecological intelligence, and collective identity. As we design digital futures, we must ensure that preservation does not become erasure — and that innovation does not silence the very communities whose knowledge we claim to protect.

The proposed conference aims to:

1. Critically examine the impact of digitization on indigenous epistemologies.
2. Explore ethical frameworks for digital archiving and knowledge preservation.
3. Address the politics of data ownership, consent, and cultural sovereignty.
4. Investigate algorithmic bias and linguistic exclusion in digital platforms.
5. Encourage collaborative models between academic institutions and indigenous communities.
6. Develop policy recommendations for ethical digital preservation.

Proposed Themes and Sub-Themes

• Data colonialism and technological imperialism
• Ownership of digitized cultural artifacts
• Platform capitalism and indigenous exploitation

• Underrepresentation of indigenous languages in AI systems
• Bias in language models and search engines
• Digital hierarchies of language

• Who controls indigenous digital archives?
• Intellectual property vs. collective knowledge systems
• Ethical digitization practices

• Digitizing oral histories: risks and responsibilities
• Performance, memory, and context loss
• Multimedia preservation challenges

• Indigenous ecological wisdom and climate justice
• GIS mapping and spatial humanities
• Sustainability and digital documentation

• Community-led digital archives
• Blockchain and indigenous intellectual property
• Decolonizing digital humanities methodologies

guest of Honour- G.N.Devy  

Email for submission: conferencedigitalhumanities@gmail.com

Deadlines for

Abstract Submission: 09/04/2026

Date of acceptance: 15/04/2026

Registration Fees:       1500 for Indian Faculty

                               1000 for Research Scholars and others

                                2500 for International Faculty and Scholar 

Convenor-

 Dr. Sourav Kumar Nag

Assistant Professor,

Department of English,

Onda Thana Mahavidyalaya 

Bankura University 

The Seminar proceeding is likely to be published by Routledge 

Coordinator- Priyanka De 

                    Ad-hoc Faculty, 

                    Department of English,

                  Onda Thana Mahavidyalaya 

                   Bankura University