About Me

Hi! I’m Nayana, a multidisciplinary researcher from India. My work explores how everyday information technologies—such as documents, data, and social media—shape power and inequality. I’m particularly interested in how these technologies both reinforce and resist structures of oppression related to caste, gender, and geography in India.

I braid theoretical frameworks and qualitative methods across disciplines including Information Studies, Science and Technology studies, and Media and Cultural Studies. Building on these strands of scholarship, my research, teaching, and service focuses the social, political, and cultural dimensions of information technologies from the perspective of the Global South.

My current projects include:

examining data-driven governance in rural India
understanding the role of social media in circulating discourses around caste and gender
developing a critical caste studies framework within Information Science

My previous research, work, and media projects have delved into themes such as gender-based exclusions from digital infrastructures, caste in private schools and curricula, information and communication practices of women’s collectives in rural areas, the use of digital media for empowerment education, and the digitalization of governance in India.

Keywords: information technology, social media, information science, science and technology studies, critical studies, gender, caste, India

If your work and/or interests intersect with mine, I’d love to chat with you. Get in touch.