RANJANA DAS

SUMMARY OF THESIS

• As new genres of social media emerge and as critical questions are raised about youthful practices in online environments, media and digital literacies are increasingly central, and even contested zones in academic and policy discussions.
• This project with 11-18 year olds in London aims to generate qualitative findings around digital literacies as complex, collaborative, design-mediated and divergent practices rather than as a homogenous technical skill set within the minds of individuals.
• The empirical work proposed with young users focuses on emergent literacies in social networking. The thesis has a simultaneous empirical focus on the media itself- proposing a comparative analysis of a single digital form (social networking sites) in ten European linguistic variations.
• A central component in her research is her focus on divergence across age i.e. how do children and teens of different ages develop divergent digital literacies. In her conceptual framework, she seeks to bring together Vygotskian approaches with reception aesthetics as she thinks through age and interpretation.
• Four themes are expected to emerge in the findings: digital genres- legibility, form and conventions; linguistic/cultural diversification of social media forms; literacies- divergence and consensus and pan-media use as interpretative work

EDUCATION

2008-2011 : Ph.D. (anticipated 2011)

Department of Media and Communication, London School of Economics (LSE), UK

Research Supervisor: Professor Sonia Livingstone

Thesis Title: Young People, Digital Literacies and Divergence: Interpretations of an Online Genre

2007-2008:  M.Sc. (Distinction)

Department of Media and Communications, LSE, UK

M.Sc in Media and Communications Research

Selected Courses

MC402: The Audience in Media and Communications: Distinction

MC4M2: Advanced Principles of Social Research: Distinction

MC499: Dissertation in Media and Communications: Distinction

2005-07:  M.A. (Second in the First Class)                        

AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, New Delhi, India

M.A. in Mass Communication

2002-2005: B.Sc. (First in the First Class)

Lady Brabourne College, University of Calcutta, India

B.Sc. in Geography, Economics and Sociology

SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS and PRIZES

Academic Awards Held:

2009-2010: POLIS Silverstone Scholarship

Awarded a sum of £5000 by POLIS the Media and Society think-tank at the LSE. This Scholarship is awarded annually to one person in honour of the late Professor Roger Silverstone, former Head of the Media and Communications Department at the LSE. http://www.polismedia.org/events/silverstonefellowship.aspx

2009-2010: London School of Economics: Media Research Studentship

Awarded a sum of £4500 for doctoral studies at the LSE

2009-10: Sir Richard Stapley Trust Educational Grant

Awarded a sum of £1000 by the Sir Richard Stapley Trust for 2009-2010.

2009-10: University of London Central Research Fund Grant

Awarded a sum of £900 by the CRF for 2009-2010.

2008-09: London School of Economics: Media Research Studentship

Awarded a sum of £7000 for doctoral studies at the LSE

2004-05: Lady Brabourne College: Award of Excellence

Awarded a Gold Medal for standing first in the first class in the University of Calcutta B.Sc examinations

2005: Lady Brabourne College: S Mukherjee Award for Outstanding Academic Performance

Award for standing first in class for three consecutive years from 2002 through 2005

Academic Awards Offered

2008-2011: University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign: Illinois Distinguished Fellowship (declined)

2008-2013: University of Iowa: Presidential Fellowship (declined)

2008-2012: Scholarships/Funding for Doctoral Studies Offered by: UIUC, University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Bowling Green State University at Ohio, Goldsmiths University of London, London School of Economics and Political Science.

PAPERS AND REPORTS

Das, R (in press for Communication Review): Meaning at the Interface: new genres, new modes of interpretative engagement?

Das, R (under review): Integrating concerns in reception analysis and digital literacies: Youthful Interpretations of Social Networking Sites

Livingstone, S., & Das, R. (in prep) The End of Audiences? Theoretical Echoes of Reception amidst the Uncertainties of Use

Livingstone, S., & Das, R. (2009) Public Attitudes, Tastes and Standards: A Review of the Available Empirical Research: A Report for the BBC. Available here or see http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/25117/

Livingstone, S., & Das, R. with contributions from others (in prep) Media, media education and participation: EF8 Report for the Family Platform.

Das, R. & Beckett, C. Eds. (2010) Digital Natives: A Myth? A POLIS Paper from the Silverstone Panel on Digital Natives at the LSE, 2009.

Das, R. (2009): Researching Youthful Literacies: Concepts, boundaries, questions. First report as Silverstone Scholar 2009-2010 for POLIS, the Media and Society think-tank, Summer 2009. Available at POLIS Papers: http://www.polismedia.org/workingpapers.aspx, or click here  

Das, R (2009): The EU Kids Online conference. Report for EURALVA Newsletter:  News from the European Alliance of Listeners' and Viewers' Associations, September 2009. See here

Das, R. (in prep): Youthful engagement with an online genre: differences and divergence across age, in teens' digital literacies. Second report as Silverstone Scholar 2009-2010 for POLIS, the Media and Society think-tank, Winter 2009

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Das, R (2010): Youthful Interpretations of Social Networking Sites: Integrating Concerns in Reception Analysis and Digital Literacies. Paper to be presented at the 2010 conference of the International Communication Association, 'Matters of Communication: Political, Cultural and Technological Challenges', Singapore, 22-26th June 2010

 Das, R. (2010). 'Old' concepts, 'new' contexts: Conceptual priorities and methodological decisions in a digital literacies project.  Paper presented at the panel titled Methodological challenges in a transmedia environment: insights from the field, MECCSA 2010 conference. January 6 to 8, 2010, LSE, UK.

Das, R. (2010) A travelling genre in a comparative frame: Social Networking Sites as interpretative contracts.  Poster accepted at the MECCSA 2010 conference. January 6 to 8, 2010, LSE, UK.

Das, R. (2010) Three Readers and a Shifting Text : The implied, the ideal and the real across syntactic boundaries.  Paper to be presented at the Reception Theories and Cinema: Spectators and audiences, authors and readers conference. February 10 to 12, 2010, Universite de Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Livingstone, S., and Das, R. (2009) The End of Audiences? Paper presented at the Transforming Audiences II Conference, University of Westminster, September 2009. See the conference talk here, or visit http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/25116/

Livingstone, S., and Das, R. (2009) Audiences and/or Users? Prospects for the Cross-Fertilization of Audience Reception and User Studies. Paper presented at the session "At the Intersection of Materiality and Meaning: The Dynamics and Consequences of User Agency in the Study of Media, Information and Communication Technologies" at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science in Washington, DC, October 28 to November 1.

Livingstone, S., and Das, R. (2009) Theoretical Echoes of Reception amidst the Uncertainties of Use. Paper presented at the Ends of Television Conference, University of Amsterdam, July 2009. See http://www.mediastudies.nl/pdf/Ends of Television.pdf

 Das, R (2009): Youthful literacies in a Web 2 world: Travelling between interpretation and use.  Seminar presentation for at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville.  Abstract here

 Das, R ( 2009): Sophia, the 'big computer' and other stories.  Paper presented at the POLIS-OFCOM Silverstone Panel on 'Digital Natives': A lost tribe?, 24th November, 2009, at the London School of Economics.  Podcast here (available under November 2009)

 Das, R (2009): From Re-telling romantic drama to representing Web 2: Hermeneutic relationships. Paper presented at the Mediatised Stories pre-conference at the Transforming Audiences II conference organized by the University of Westminster, September 2009. See http://www.transformingaudiences.org.uk/

 Das, R (2009): User-representations of social networks. Poster presented at the Transforming Audiences II conference organized by the University of Westminster, September 2009

  Das, R ( 2009): Web 2 literacies as interpretative engagement.  Paper presented at the University of Westminster doctoral symposium, London, 2009

Das, R (2009): Interpretive Work for an Online Genre: Challenges in Reception Analysis. Paper presented at the University of Westminster doctoral symposium, London, 2009

BOOK REVIEWS AND ENCYCLOPAEDIA SUBMISSIONS

Das, R. (2009). Book Review, Understanding Media Users: From Theory to Practice. Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Particip@tions: The International Journal of Audience and Reception Studies 6(1). See http://www.participations.org/Volume 6/Issue 1/das.htm

Das, R. (2008). Book Review, Creative Explorations: New Approaches to Identities and Audiences. London: Routledge, 2007. Media, Culture & Society 30(6). 918-920

Das, R (submitted): Soap Opera and Telenovelas. Entry for the Encyclopaedia of Consumer Culture (2011)

INVOLVEMENT IN RESEARCH PROJECTS

2009-2011: FAMILY PLATFORM

Ranjana is Research Assistant and co-author on the Report on Existential Field 8 - Sonia Livingstone’s section (media, family education and participation) of the Family Platform project. The project is an EC funded platform researching family issues in Europe and is coordinated at the Technical University of Dortmund.

Ranjana’s work on this European project involves reviewing the literature on family and the media across Europe towards critical reviews of the state of the art as well as foresight and future scenario development aims, and contributing to drafts of reports. She is co-authoring the Existential Field 8 report for the platform, as follows: Livingstone, S., & Das, R. with contributions from others (in prep) The Media and the Family, across Europe: EF8 Report for the Family Platform.

2009: PUBLIC ATTITUDES TASTES AND STANDARDS

Ranjana assisted Professor Sonia Livingstone on her consultancy for the BBC on Public Attitudes, Tastes and Standards  which resulted in a report.

Ranjana worked on this consultancy project by searching the literature, producing critical summaries of key articles and drafting a version of the report. The report co-authored with Sonia Livingstone is available here: Livingstone, S., & Das, R. (2009) Public Attitudes, Tastes and Standards: A Review of the Available Empirical Research: A Report for the BBC. Available here or see http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/25117/

2009-2011: EU KIDS ONLINE II

Ranjana is Research Assistant on the EU Kids Online II project till June 2011. The project is based at the Department of Media and Communications, LSE and is directed by Sonia Livingstone. See www.eukidsonline.net

Ranjana’s work on this pan-European project is of network administration. Specifically, she has contributed to the development and design and handles the maintenance of an online network portal which brings together four Google platforms to support network communication.

2009: EU KIDS ONLINE

Ranjana was Research Assistant on the EU Kids Online project, a 21 country thematic network directed by Sonia Livingstone, at the LSE, from January 2009 to June 2009  

Ranjana’s work on this pan-European project was of network administration. She joined the project in its last six months and amongst other duties, worked towards the final conference. This was a one-day international conference of about 250 people, at the LSE, in June 2009. Her report of the conference for the Euralva newsletter is accessible here: Das, R (2009): The EU Kids Online conference. Report for EURALVA Newsletter:  News from the European Alliance of Listeners' and Viewers' Associations, September 2009.

 2010: COST Action ISO906 Transforming Audiences Transforming Societies

Ranjana is a suppleant on the Management Committee of the Cost Action IS0906 Transforming Audiences Transforming Societies. See here. The main objective of this Action is to advance state-of-the-art knowledge of the key transformations of European audiences within a changing media and communication environment, identifying their interrelationships with the social, cultural and political areas of European societies.

2007-08: COMPAS AND KALAYAAN

Ranjana provided research assistance on a project for COMPAS, Oxford and Kalayaan, a charity in London

 While an MSc student in the Department of Media and Communications, at the LSE, Ranjana’s worked on the first Kalayaan Carer Project photography workshop. She participated in interviews and group discussions on carer women’s use of photography in their everyday lives from which she drafted a report and also provided interpreter services.

2006: UNESCO – ETHNOGRAPHIC AND ACTION RESEARCH

Ranjana was rapporteur for a UNESCO workshop on Ethnographic and Action Research at New Delhi, India.

 While an MA student at the Mass Communication Research Centre in New Delhi, India, Ranjana worked with a colleague as rapporteur for a two day workshop on ethnographic and action research organised by the UNESCO. The rapporteuring resulted in two co-authored reports (unpublished).

TEACHING EXPERIENCE  

Graduate Teaching Assistant, MC Labs, 2009-2010

Ranjana is Graduate Teaching Assistant on the MC Labs course in the Department of Media and Communications at the LSE, offering hour-long seminars twice weekly, and once a week office hours. In collaboration with two colleagues, she has worked on the design of a seminar series called MC Labs for Masters students in media and communications.

PG Cert in Higher Education, 2009-2011

Ranjana is taking the PG Certificate for Higher Education, part time at the LSE from 2009 to 2011

ACADEMIC/RESEARCH SUPPORT ROLES           

Peer Review

Jointly with her supervisor Professor Livingstone, Ranjana has reviewed for The European Journal of Communication and Poetics

Academic Event Organization

2009: Polis Silverstone Panel on ‘Digital Natives’

As Silverstone scholar 2009, Ranjana organized and participated in an autumn event titled Digital Natives: A Myth?- at the LSE, on 24^th November, 2009. Details at POLIS events: http://www.polismedia.org/events/eventdetail/digital-natives-the-internets-lost-tribe-a-seminar-on-young-people-and-the-internet.aspx

2009-10: Media@LSE summer symposium on communication, information and culture

Ranjana is working with a colleague to organise the Doctoral Students Symposium at the LSE on 7^th June 2010.

2009: EU Kids Online International One-Day Conference

As RA on EU Kids Online, Ranjana worked with others on organising an international one-day conference to mark the conclusion of EU Kids Online I. The conference took place at the LSE on 11^th June, 2009 and saw the network present its findings and also saw research papers being presented from all over Europe.

Graduate Student Representation