Digital activism, social movements, public sphere, and cultural transformation in Bangladesh.
Research & Projects
Digital Society • Activism • Public Sphere • Culture • Bangladesh & South Asia
My research examines how digital technologies transform sociality, activism, and public life in Bangladesh and South Asia. I work across digital ethnography, social movement studies, media anthropology, and political sociology to understand how online publics engage with power, truth, identity, and civic imagination.
This page highlights my ongoing projects, publications, collaborations, and student-led research clusters.
Featured Projects
July Revolution 2024: Digital Activism, Misinformation & State Response
A multimodal research cluster on how misinformation, internet shutdowns, protest mobilization, and digital repression shaped the July 2024 uprising in Bangladesh. The project explores rumor ecologies, visual resistance, and youth political publics.
Resistance Sociality in the Shahbag Movement
PhD research at Hiroshima University (MEXT) on how youth activists constructed a new “resistance sociality” through social media during the Shahbag movement. The project analyses contested imaginaries of nationalism and Islam and their digital articulations.
Post-Shahbag Islamic Digital Public Sphere & F-Commerce
A study of emerging Islamic digital publics in Bangladesh, focusing on F-commerce entrepreneurs, Islamic aesthetics, and hybrid piety–capital networks. The project analyses how online Muslimness, authority, and commerce intersect in everyday life.
OTT-Based Digital Sociality
An ethnographic exploration of how Bangladeshi urban youth craft intimacy, identity, and everyday routines through OTT platforms. The chapter examines platform capitalism, taste, and the politics of digital leisure in contemporary Bangladesh.
Research Clusters
Social Media, Activism & Public Sphere
Research on digital activism, contentious politics, hashtag publics, and hybrid forms of civic engagement in Bangladesh.
Includes major work on the Shahbag movement and the July Revolution 2024, exploring how digital publics negotiate identity, truth, and political possibility.
Misinformation, Governance & Authoritarianism
Studies of cross-border misinformation networks, rumor ecologies, cybersecurity laws, and digital repression.
Includes collaborations with Asia Foundation, ERC BIT-ACT, and UN agencies on digital rights, state power, and platform governance.
Youth Culture, Digital Rituals & Everyday Life
Ethnographic studies of young people’s digital routines, OTT-based sociality, aspiration, precarity, and new forms of identity-making.
Includes work on urban youth publics, platform cultures, and emergent digital rituals..
Islam, Religion & Digital Publics
Research on digital Muslimness, online piety, Islamic entrepreneurship, and contested forms of religious authority.
Includes studies of F-commerce, Qawmi madrasa digital networks, and hybrid religio-economic public spheres.
Invited Talks, Conference Presentations & Keynotes
Invited Speaker – Queen Mary University of London South Asia Forum
Conference: Bangladesh at 50: Beyond Rhetoric
Date: 9–11 December 2021
Panel: Resistance & Social Movements
Talk: Digital Sociality and Strangulated Spaces:
Understanding Digital Resistance Beyond Shahbag Movement
Moderator: Layli Uddin
Other Speakers:
- Samina Luthfa (University of Dhaka)
- Taslima Akhter (Bangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity)
Keynote Speech: Building a Safe, Equal & Compassionate Digital Bangladesh
Jessore IT Park Conference | 19 September 2024
Dr. Moiyen Zalal Chowdhury was invited as the keynote speaker at a national conference titled “Safe online, equality, tolerance, and compassion—let’s build a new Bangladesh.”
The event was organized by Cyber Teens, Kids Right, and the National Cyber Security Agency of Bangladesh, with support from Jessore Science and Technology University.
Approximately 400 participants attended the full-day event.
Innovation, Cognition & Technology Governance
Research on how innovation ecosystems, intellectual property regimes, and digital technologies shape human cognition and everyday life.
This cluster explores attention, digital dependency, institutional culture, and the socio-technical conditions that enable or constrain invention and technology transfer in Bangladesh and beyond.
Current activities in this cluster include:
- HP4ITT – Harnessing Patents for Innovation & Technology Transfer (BRAC University, 2025):
- A three-day interdisciplinary training on patent literacy, innovation ecosystems, and technology transfer, informing my emerging work on attention, digital dependency, and innovation governance.
- Ongoing conceptual development of a human-centred framework on cognition and digital overload (future project).
Student Research & Supervision
I mentor undergraduate researchers working on digital society, gender & public space, religion, misinformation, and environmental activism. Many of these projects form thematic clusters, and more than 20 of my students have gone on to receive fully funded scholarships abroad.
July Revolution 2024 Research Cluster
Supervised projects examining misinformation, digital repression, social media–state confrontation, meme-based protest, and youth activism during the July 2024 uprising. These works collectively map how digital publics negotiated fear, hope, and political possibility.
Urban Culture, Food & Digital Life
Projects on food vlogging, urban taste cultures, and the transformation of everyday life through visual and digital media. These works explore how digital capitalism intersects with creativity and identity.
Religion, Ritual & Socio-Spiritual Practices
Research supervision focusing on Sufi Urs practices across Bangladesh and India, examining gender, authority, ritual transformation, and the negotiation of spiritual legitimacy in contemporary South Asia.
Gender, Public Space & Stigma
Research on menstrual hygiene stigma, contested public spaces, and embodied experiences of gendered marginality — including the 2025 Book Fair shutdown controversy.
Publications
• Post-Shahbag: The Rise of F-Commerce & Islamic Public Sphere in Bangladesh — Springer, 2024.
• OTT-based Digital Sociality among Urban Youth — Routledge, 2023.
• The Resistance Sociality of the Shahbag Movement — UPL, 2022.
• Hope and Despair: Anti-Corruption Initiatives & Social Media Realities — Edward Elgar (forthcoming).
• Social Media, Social Movement: Bangladesh’s Shahbag Movement & Hefazat-e-Islam — Bangabidya (2018)
• Deposition of a Social Media Ethnographer — Journal of Anthropology (2018)
• Adivasi Debate in Bangla Blogosphere — Journal of Anthropology (2015)
• Right to Information & Self-Censorship — Feedback (2013)
Selected International & National Presentations
• Yale University (2019) — Social media, nationalism & resistance
• Berlin Visitors Program (2014) — Cyber policies & online publics
• Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2015) — Identity politics & Islam
• Green University ITD (2024) — Internet blackout during July Revolution
• ULAB Network Symposium (2024) — Cross-border misinformation
• JASID (Japan) — Multiple years
Published essays in:
• Deshrupantor
• New Age
• Songbad Prokash
Topics include digital rights, hybrid society, AI poetics, youth life online, safety, misinformation, and cultural transformation.
Media, Podcast & Public Engagement
Selected talks, interviews, keynote lectures, and public conversations connected to digital rights, activism, social media, and cultural change.
Channel i Talk Show — Digital Society & Youth
Discussion on social media, civic engagement & transformation.
🎙️ Podcast Conversation: The Shahbag Movement & Digital Politics in Bangladesh
A critical discussion exploring the 2013 Shahbag Movement, its transformations, and its connection to the rise of digital politics and digital society in Bangladesh.
The conversation examines how social media, virtual publics, and platform capitalism are reshaping political engagement under digital authoritarianism.
ESS Seminar Series – BRAC University
Resistance Sociality in Social Media Movement: The Case of Shahbag Movement in Bangladesh
Delivered an invited seminar as part of the ESS Seminar Series at BRAC University, presenting core arguments from my research on digital resistance, political publics, and the transformation of collective action in Bangladesh. The talk revisits the Shahbag Movement to explore “resistance sociality,” digital publics, strangulated spaces, and the emergent logics of online political engagement.
Grants & Collaborations
My research is supported through competitive grants and institutional partnerships across Japan, Europe, and Bangladesh. These collaborations strengthen my work on digital society, activism, misinformation, and governance.
Research Grants
• JSPS Research Involvement, Hiroshima University — contributed as researcher to projects examining digital society, social media, and transformations in public life. (Not PI; part of JSPS-funded teams.)
• ERC BIT-ACT (EU Grant) — served as Country Expert (Bangladesh) for the University of Bologna’s BIT-ACT project on anti-corruption technologies, misinformation, and digital governance.
• RSGI Internal Research Grant (2025) — awarded BRAC University RSGI funding for new research initiatives beginning 2025.
Institutional Partners
Hiroshima University (Japan)
• University of Bologna (Italy)
• INTI International University (Malaysia)
• ULAB, North South University, Dhaka University
• Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
These partnerships expand interdisciplinary research on digital society across South Asia, Japan, and Europe.
Academic Networks
• Japan Society for International Development (JASID)
• International Society of Bengal Studies
• Bangladesh Studies Network
• Regional collaborations on misinformation & digital rights
These networks support conference participation, collaborative research, and public scholarship.
Service & Leadership
I contribute to departmental development, student mentorship, curriculum innovation, and interdisciplinary academic networks through a wide range of service and leadership roles at BRAC University and beyond.
Departmental & Academic Service
Student, Community & Professional Service
Interested in Collaboration?
I welcome opportunities for collaboration on digital anthropology, social movements, misinformation, Islamic digital publics, and interdisciplinary research on Bangladesh and South Asia.
Whether you are planning a research project, seeking a speaker, developing policy work, or mentoring students — I would be glad to connect.