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Postdoc: Harvard University and IIT Bombay

Ph.D. in Science Policy: Jawaharlal Nehru University

M.Phil. in Science Policy: Jawaharlal Nehru University

M.Sc in Physical Chemistry: University of Delhi

B.Sc (H) in Chemistry: Gargi College, University of Delhi
 

Prof. (Dr.) Vidya Subramanian

Associate Professor and Associate Dean (Academics)

Email vidya.subramanian@jgu.edu.in
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ORCID ID 0000-0001-7131-9906
Key Expertise Science Technology and Society, Sociology of Science and Technology, Digital Governance, Digital Cultures, Digital Media, Sports and Technologies.

Postdoc: Harvard University and IIT Bombay

Ph.D. in Science Policy: Jawaharlal Nehru University

M.Phil. in Science Policy: Jawaharlal Nehru University

M.Sc in Physical Chemistry: University of Delhi

B.Sc (H) in Chemistry: Gargi College, University of Delhi
 

Biography

Vidya Subramanian is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research interests lie at the intersections of technology, culture, and society, with a particular focus on the digital realm. Her research is loosely framed by two large issues: the first is of the colonisation of the everyday so-called real world by the digital; and the second is how power permeates and is implicated in such technologies. Drawing on diverse academic fields such as Science, Technology, and Society (STS), Sociology, Media Studies, and Sports Studies, Vidya's work critically interrogates how technological systems mediate social and political life. Her research centres on India while engaging broader questions relevant to the Global South.

Her doctoral research, completed at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) New Delhi, analysed the impact of ICTs and television on cricket, focusing on how these technologies transformed the sport, the spectator, and the broader cultural landscape. This work culminated in her first book, Speeding Up Sport: Technology and the Indian Premier League (OUP, 2023), which explores how the digital imbricates everyday life through technologies of leisure and play. Before joining Jindal Global Law School, Vidya held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University and IIT Bombay. She has written on justice-seeking practices in the digital, ideas of digital citizenship, and the intersections of power, technology, and inequality.

By exploring how digital technologies mediate social and political life, her research sheds light on how justice, rights, and citizenship are reimagined in increasingly digitalised societies. Her teaching reflects a commitment to interdisciplinary inquiry and critical pedagogy, encouraging students to think deeply about the ethical, cultural, and political dimensions of technology. Beyond academia, Vidya is actively engaged in collaborative initiatives that seek to make research and dialogue on science and technology more inclusive and representative of diverse perspectives, especially from the Global South.

  • Technology Politics and Society (TPS) (Elective)
  • Foundations of Social Science - I and II (Core)
  • Science Technology and Society (Core, MD)
  • Academic Writing (Core, AEC)
  • Life Skills and Vocation (Core, SEC)
  • 2021-22 Raghunathan Family Fellowship, South Asia Institute, Harvard University
  • 2020-22 Visiting Fellowship, Program on Science Technology and Society, Harvard University
  • Raghunathan Family Fellow, Mittal South Asia Institute, Harvard University
  • STS Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University 2020-2022)
  • Post Doctoral Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies, IIT Bombay (2018-2021)
  • Member, Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Science, Technology and Society, Sage Journals
  • Convenor, First STS India Network Conference, JGU, December 2025
  • Editor, Nexus: The STS India Network Blog
     
  • Member, Executive Committee, STS India Network

Forthcoming (2026). 'Biometrics, Inequality, and Hostility: The Case of Aadhaar in India' in Hostility by Design: How Technology Loses its Innocence, Ed. Sally Wyatt. Bristol University Press.

In Revision. Sidestepping Aarogya Setu: non-users of India's Covid-19 contact tracing app. Digital Society (Collection "Reassembling Politics through Sensory Power? Digital Contact Tracing and the Infrastructuring of Governance") Eds.: Nicolas Baya-Laffite, Céline Cholez, Gernot Rieder, Kjetil Rommetveit.

2025 September 24. From Memes to Movements: The Politics of Justice in Virtual Spaces. Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/from-memes-to-movements-the-politics-of-justice-in-virtual-spaces-3741244

2025 June 21. Internet was a city waiting to be explored. Now it’s a prison cell. Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/internet-was-a-city-waiting-to-be-explored-now-its-a-prison-cell-3596461

2025 May 09. Who’s afraid of ChatGPT? Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/whos-afraid-of-chatgpt-3532653

2025 April 19. Cricket meets ‘Kantara’ — only in IPL. Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/cricket-meets-kantara-only-in-ipl-3500773

2025 March 08. What should we celebrate this Women’s Day? Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/what-should-we-celebrate-this-womens-day-3438005

2025 February 06. Stop assuming a one-size-fits-all digital future. Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/stop-assuming-a-one-size-fits-all-digital-future-3392362

2024. Citizenship in India: parsing the complexity of digital identity systems. Science Technology and Society (Special Issue: STS from the Peripheries). Vol 29 (4): https://doi.org/10.1177/09717218241281940

2024 (with Yousif Hassan). Peripheral Visions: STS and Digitalisation in the Non-West (Introduction). Science Technology and Society (Special Issue: STS from the Peripheries). Vol 29 (4): https://doi.org/10.1177/09717218241282531

2024, December (with Yousif Hassan, University of Michigan). STS from the Peripheries. Special Issue in Science Technology and Society.

2024 December 19. Trump, Musk, DOGE — a fatal combination for democracy in India and around the world. Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/trump-musk-doge-a-fatal-combination-for-democracy-in-india-and-around-the-world-3324289

2024 November 09. Can Digital Identities Eliminate Social Differences? Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/can-digital-identities-eliminate-social-differences-3269330

2024 October 19. Outdated gender roles and bad science — Sperm is not the hero, egg is not femme fatale. Deccan Herald. https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/outdated-gender-roles-and-bad-science-sperm-is-not-the-hero-egg-is-not-femme-fatale-3239634

2023. Speaking Out on the Internet: What does it mean to seek ‘justice’ on social media? Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, 55:2, 226-246, DOI: 10.1080/27706869.2023.2176010

2023. Speeding Up Sport: Technology and the Indian Premier League: Oxford University Press (ISBN: 978–0–19–286512–0)

2022, March. By The People: How ‘clicktivism’ helped shape net neutrality in India. Dialogue: Science, Scientists and Society (Special issue: Inquiring into Technoscience in India, edited by Dhruv Raina). https://dialogue.ias.ac.in/index.php/dialogue/article/view/53

2021. Who Watches Cricket? The New Spectator in the Sporting-Entertainment Complex. In Padma Prakash, Meena Gopal and Sujata Patel (ed.), Sports Studies in India: Expanding the Field. Oxford University Press.

2021 August 06. Data, data, everywhere, but where’s the stuff that matters? Money Control. https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/data-data-everywhere-but-wheres-the-stuff-that-matters-7285881.html

2021 July 27. Olympic Games | It’s 2021, but the sexualisation of women in sports continues. Money Control: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/olympic-games-its-2021-but-the-sexualisation-of-women-in-sports-continues-7228921.html

2021 July 16. WhatsApp in India: A Tale of Big Tech, Privacy Violation and Government Control. The India Forum. https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/whatsapp-indian-government-tussle

2021, June 06. Naomi Osaka Starts an Important Conversation. eSocialSciences. https://t.ly/Winoj

2021, March 20. Art in the time of NFTs. Money Control: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/art-in-the-time-of-nfts-6670061

2020, May 09. (with Kalindi Kokal). Locking Down on Rights: Surveillance and Administrative Ambiguity in the Pandemic. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 55 (19): https://www.epw.in/engage/article/locking-down-rights-surveillance-and-ambiguity-covid-19

2020, May. (with Marianne Noel and Harmony Paquin). Tweet, Set, Match: Negotiating the Boundaries of Digital Technologies in Elite Tennis. Science, Technology and Society, Vol 25 (3), 404-425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971721820912923

2020. (with Dhrubo Jyoti). Notes from a Newsroom: Interrogating the transformation of Hindustan Times in a “digital” space. In Maya Dodd, Nidhi Kalra (Ed.), Exploring the Digital Humanities in India: Pedagogies, Practices, and Institutional Possibilities: Routledge India

2020, August 18. MS Dhoni and Indian cricket’s superstar problem. Money Control: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/ms-dhoni-and-indian-crickets-superstar-problem-5722691.html

2020, July 10. How the TikTok phenomenon democratised online space in India. Money Control: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opinion/how-the-tiktok-phenomenon-democratised-online-space-in-india-5531431.html

2020, June 14. Sports Without Spectators: Good for now, but hardly the new ‘normal’. eSocialSciences: http://www.esocialsciences.org/Articles/show_Article.aspx?qs=bGp0Ut9EHmCw/EpGtd/DaNEAKTL05zBU3Y91S6UshAM=

2020, April 04. Reflections on surveillance in the middle of a pandemic. Hindustan Times: http://read.ht/ENKK 2019

2019, June 25. A Paradigm Shift in Policy Thinking for Women. Talking Policy: http://www.cps.iitb.ac.in/a-paradigm-shift-in-policy-thinking-for-women/

2019, February 07. Develop effective policies to regulate tech giants. Hindustan Times: http://read.ht/BrPs

2017. Buying into new cricket. In Suresh Menon (Ed.), Wisden India Almanack 2017 (Fifth Edition). India: Bloomsbury. 185-189

2017, October 03. Women deserve better than prison treatment in universities like BHU. Hindustan Times: http://read.ht/B8LA

2017, July 18. Just in case anyone’s forgotten, all tennis greats are not men. Hindustan Times: http://read.ht/B2tK

2017, June 04. Ramachandra Guha’s resignation letter proves our cricketing heroes have betrayed us. Hindustan Times: http://read.ht/BZzw

2017, April 27. The utter uselessness of banning social media in Kashmir. Hindustan Times: http://read.ht/BXe7

2017, February 18. Mark Zuckerberg’s plans for Facebook to save the world. Hindustan Times: http://read.ht/BTFp

2017, January 12. Digital Diplomacy is the New Radio. Hindustan Times: http://read.ht/B93R

2017, January 7. When Bernie Sanders brought a giant printout of a Trump tweet to the US Senate. Hindustan Times. http://read.ht/BQ5R

2016, November. ‘Television Was Left On, a Running Tap, From Morning till Night’: The Indian Premier League (IPL) as a Marketing Vehicle. Sporting Traditions, Vol. 33 (2), 1–17. https://search.informit.org/doi/epdf/10.3316/informit.424097816843353

2016. Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax: what we talk about when we talk about the IPL. Jindal Journal of Public Policy, Vol 3 (1), 251-264

2016. Talking Between the Panels: Coffee and Lunch Breaks at 4S/EAAST, Barcelona 2016. EASST Review, Vol 35(4): https://easst.net/article/talking-between-the-panels-coffee-and-lunch-breaks-at-4seaast-barcelona-2016/

2015, April 11. Cricket-lite: IPL as a Sporting-Entertainment Complex. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 50 (15): http://www.epw.in/journal/2015/15/web-exclusives/cricket-lite.html

2014, February 16. The Surprising Friendship between Cricket and Military Technology. Hindustan Times. http://read.ht/B93S

2013. Not Just Cricket: The IPL as the Politics of Speed. The International Journal of Sport and Society, Vol 3, 69-79

2012, December. Cricket in the fast Lane: politics of speed. Economic and Political Weekly, Vol 47 (50), 21-24: https://www.epw.in/journal/2012/50/commentary/cricket-fast-lane.html
Email vidya.subramanian@jgu.edu.in
ORCID ID 0000-0001-7131-9906
Key Expertise Science Technology and Society, Sociology of Science and Technology, Digital Governance, Digital Cultures, Digital Media, Sports and Technologies.
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