Sandeep Mertia
Assistant Professor
School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Education
- PhD (2023) New York University (Media, Culture, and Communication)
- BE (2014) Dhirubhai Ambani Intsitute of Information and Communication Technology (B.Tech. in Information and Communication Technology)
Research
Sandeep Mertia is broadly interested in historical and anthropological research on media technologies, computing, urbanism, and futures. His current book project, "Starting-up with the State: Computing, Entrepreneurship, and the Governance of Aspiration in India," examines the imaginaries, infrastructures, and everyday practices of digital future-making at the intersections of the state and technology start-ups in India. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and NYU’s inaugural Urban Doctoral Fellowship, among others.
His previous projects have focused on the socio-technical dynamics of rural internet infrastructure, smart cities, colonial and postcolonial official statistics, and data-driven governance in the global South. He is the editor of "Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India" (Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020). His work has appeared in the Economic & Political Weekly, The Fibreculture Journal, Computational Culture, Sarai, LSE Impact, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, DataKind, and other venues. He has been affiliated with civic tech initiatives such as DataMeet, DataKind, and HillHacks, and has taught school children for non-profits such as Make a Difference and Sambhav.
His previous projects have focused on the socio-technical dynamics of rural internet infrastructure, smart cities, colonial and postcolonial official statistics, and data-driven governance in the global South. He is the editor of "Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India" (Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020). His work has appeared in the Economic & Political Weekly, The Fibreculture Journal, Computational Culture, Sarai, LSE Impact, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, DataKind, and other venues. He has been affiliated with civic tech initiatives such as DataMeet, DataKind, and HillHacks, and has taught school children for non-profits such as Make a Difference and Sambhav.
Experience
Joint Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Advanced Research in Global Communication (CARGC) and Center on Digital Culture and Society (CDCS), Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 2023-24
Assistant Editor, Public Culture, 2022-23
Ph.D. Candidate and Urban Doctoral Fellow, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC), New York University, 2017-2023
Research Associate, The Sarai Programme, Center for the Study of Developing Societies (Sarai-CSDS), New Delhi, 2015-2017
Social & Digital Media Research Fellow, Sarai-CSDS, 2014-15
Assistant Editor, Public Culture, 2022-23
Ph.D. Candidate and Urban Doctoral Fellow, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication (MCC), New York University, 2017-2023
Research Associate, The Sarai Programme, Center for the Study of Developing Societies (Sarai-CSDS), New Delhi, 2015-2017
Social & Digital Media Research Fellow, Sarai-CSDS, 2014-15
Honors and Awards
Dissertation Distinction Award, MCC NYU, 2023
Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Global Research Initiative, NYU Berlin, 2023
Steinhardt Dissertation Finishing Award, NYU, 2022-2023
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG), Science & Technology Studies (STS) Program, National Science Foundation, 2021 (Award number 2043832)
Dissertation Writing Fellowship, Global Research Initiative, NYU Berlin, 2023
Steinhardt Dissertation Finishing Award, NYU, 2022-2023
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG), Science & Technology Studies (STS) Program, National Science Foundation, 2021 (Award number 2043832)
Selected Publications
Edited Book
Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India. Foreword by Ravi Sundaram. Theory on Demand, #39. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020. Open Access: https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/lives-of-data-essays-on-computational-cultures-from-india/
Book Chapters
“Introduction: Relationalities Abound”, Introductory Essay in Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India, ed. S. Mertia. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020
“Did Mahalanobis Dream of Androids?” in Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India, ed. S. Mertia. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020
“Digital India”, in Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century, eds. Peter Ronald deSouza and Rukmini Bhaya Nair. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
Journal Articles
“Time-pass Development: Situating Social Media in Rural Rajasthan.” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 52, Issue 47, November 2017. http://www.epw.in/journal/2017/47/special-articles/‘timepass’-development.html
“Socio-Technical Imaginaries of a Data-Driven City – Ethnographic Vignettes from Delhi.” The Fibreculture Journal, Issue 29: Computing the City, May 2017. http://twentynine.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-217-socio-technical- imaginaries-of-a-data-driven-city-ethnographic-vignettes-from-delhi/. DOI: 10.15307/fcj.29.217.2017.
“A Note on Digital Literacy in Rural India.” Rural Education, Vol. III (I), Jan 2015 (Translator: Cora Yi An Cheng). https://issuu.com/presspad/docs/i12767
Other Select Publications
Is Semi-Digital Data Justice Possible? Data Justice in Context, 2023. https://www.datajusticeincontext.com/sandeep-mertia
‘Big Data Aggregation’. An excerpt from the Introduction to the book ‘Lives of Data’. The Economic Times, 15 June 2021. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-citings/big-data-aggregation/articleshow/83552838.cms
‘How Data in India Went from Being a Tool of Economic Planning to Big Data Aggregation’. An excerpt from the Introduction to the book ‘Lives of Data’. The Wire, 15 January 2021. https://thewire.in/books/lives-of-data-economic-planning-aggregation-aadhaar-tech-companies
Country Report from India, in the ‘Open Data from the International Perspective’ Report, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Germany. 30 June 2016. http://www.kas.de/wf/de/33.45742/
From Computing Clerks to Androids: Two Bits on Material Lives of Social Data in India. The London School of Economics and Political Science: The Impact Blog. 08 April 2016. http://goo.gl/RkRmhJ
Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India. Foreword by Ravi Sundaram. Theory on Demand, #39. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020. Open Access: https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/lives-of-data-essays-on-computational-cultures-from-india/
Book Chapters
“Introduction: Relationalities Abound”, Introductory Essay in Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India, ed. S. Mertia. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020
“Did Mahalanobis Dream of Androids?” in Lives of Data: Essays on Computational Cultures from India, ed. S. Mertia. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2020
“Digital India”, in Keywords for India: A Conceptual Lexicon for the 21st Century, eds. Peter Ronald deSouza and Rukmini Bhaya Nair. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
Journal Articles
“Time-pass Development: Situating Social Media in Rural Rajasthan.” Economic & Political Weekly, Vol. 52, Issue 47, November 2017. http://www.epw.in/journal/2017/47/special-articles/‘timepass’-development.html
“Socio-Technical Imaginaries of a Data-Driven City – Ethnographic Vignettes from Delhi.” The Fibreculture Journal, Issue 29: Computing the City, May 2017. http://twentynine.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-217-socio-technical- imaginaries-of-a-data-driven-city-ethnographic-vignettes-from-delhi/. DOI: 10.15307/fcj.29.217.2017.
“A Note on Digital Literacy in Rural India.” Rural Education, Vol. III (I), Jan 2015 (Translator: Cora Yi An Cheng). https://issuu.com/presspad/docs/i12767
Other Select Publications
Is Semi-Digital Data Justice Possible? Data Justice in Context, 2023. https://www.datajusticeincontext.com/sandeep-mertia
‘Big Data Aggregation’. An excerpt from the Introduction to the book ‘Lives of Data’. The Economic Times, 15 June 2021. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-citings/big-data-aggregation/articleshow/83552838.cms
‘How Data in India Went from Being a Tool of Economic Planning to Big Data Aggregation’. An excerpt from the Introduction to the book ‘Lives of Data’. The Wire, 15 January 2021. https://thewire.in/books/lives-of-data-economic-planning-aggregation-aadhaar-tech-companies
Country Report from India, in the ‘Open Data from the International Perspective’ Report, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Germany. 30 June 2016. http://www.kas.de/wf/de/33.45742/
From Computing Clerks to Androids: Two Bits on Material Lives of Social Data in India. The London School of Economics and Political Science: The Impact Blog. 08 April 2016. http://goo.gl/RkRmhJ
Courses
HSS 371 Computers and Society