Lecture Series
Experimenting with and from Shenzhen: African Tech Markets, Relationality, and Translocal Design
Seyram Avle
Online event
April 29 2026, 15:00 CET
Seyram Avle is Associate Professor of Global Digital Media in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she is also co-founder and director of the Global Technology for Social Justice Lab (GloTech Lab). Her research is on digital technology cultures and innovation in the Global South. This lecture examines ways in which Shenzhen’s ethos of experimentation manifests across African markets via mobile phones and other consumer electronics. Drawing on ethnographic work and artifact analysis through a trans-local lens, it demonstrates how the dynamics of experimentation complicate notions of relationality in south-south formations and reveal imaginaries of technological futures for the Global Majority.