Refuge(e)s in the Digital Diaspora

In this article, I explore how the memories of the missing men that perished in the Bosnian War have been framed, forged and relayed among the surviving family members by means of photography. I analyse three cases of the use of photography and its creative processing among the surviving relatives through which they sought to add a sense of individuality to the objects of camera – their missing family members. The data for this article are derived from my ethnographic engagement with the Bosnian communities of genocide survivors resettled in Australia and the United States, combined with the visual analysis of artworks relative to the topic of lost family members. The article also highlights the conductivity of photography through which the post-generation identifies with and processes the ancestral trauma of genocide. The findings from this article re-visit the importance of materiality in the service of memory, through which the loss is mediated, transformed, transmitted and embraced. I argue that closer scholarly engagement with personal(ised) modes of honouring and remembering the individual victims of genocide can foster a better understanding of its emotional reverberations and impact on the healing of affected societies.

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Research inquiries for digital diaspora and digital diasporic media

Yu,

Parke

2023

Journal of Global Diaspora &Amp; Media

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Diaspora and diasporic media have been studied consistently. As research subjects, however, their transition to, or creation on, digital platforms makes it increasingly ambiguous to distinguish digital diaspora from digital diasporic media. This study examines literature on digital diaspora and digital diasporic media and explores this ambiguity by looking at how these two research subjects have been conceptualized and methodologically approached. Referring to Candidatu, Leurs and Ponzanesi’s typology of digital diaspora research, this study concludes that the ambiguity is associated with shifting research paradigms in both internet and digital diaspora studies. The study further offers new insights that digital diaspora and digital diasporic media diverge on the projects each pursues and the nature of content each delivers, but converge on ‘media’ in the age of social media and the increasingly transcultural initiatives of these media. The study also offers the areas of further research that emerge from this ambiguity.

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Refuge(e)s in the Digital Diaspora

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

Long-Distance Refugee Activism: Commemorating, Recreating and Reimagining Post-Genocide Communities in Diaspora

Long-Distance Refugee Activism: Commemorating, Recreating and Reimagining Post-Genocide Communities in Diaspora

Framing the unforgettable: Photography as a tool for negotiating and reimag(in)ing the memories of the missing relatives

Research inquiries for digital diaspora and digital diasporic media

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