Project Description
RESEARCH AREAS:
Critical & Feminist Political Theories
Continental Philosophy
Political Theory of Technology
CONTACT:
Western University, Social Science Centre,
7th floor, Room# 7316
London, Ontario, Canada
N6A 3C25196612111 ext. 81161
NANDITA BISWAS MELLAMPHY
PhD, University of Toronto;
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Western University
Nandita Biswas Mellamphy (BA Manitoba, MA Western, PhD Toronto) is Associate Professor and former Undergraduate Chair (2021-4) of Political Science in the faculty of Social Sciences at Western University. She is also an affiliate in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, core faculty in the Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism, and founding Director of The Electro-Governance research group (EGG).
Nationally, she has served as Assistant Editor of the Canadian Journal of Political Science (2020-23) and is currently an Associate Editor at Interconnections: Journal of Posthumanism.
Her research/teaching expertise are situated at the intersection of Political Theory of Technology, Critical- and Feminist Political Theories, Critical Security Studies, Continental Philosophy, and Media Studies.
Internationally, her research has been showcased at the Center for Contemporary Creations (Spain), the Venice Biennale (Italy), The University of Newcastle (UK), Johannes Gutenberg University (Mainz, Germany), Leiden University, Cardiff University (UK), Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago, Chile), Center for Transformative Media (USA), CalArts (USA) and the University of Wisconsin (USA). Her research has been published in international peer reviewed presses such as MIT Press, Bloomsbury, Brill, DeGruyter, and Springer, as well as in journals such as Philosophy and Technology, Critical Policy Studies, Nature and Culture, Digital War, Anthropocene Review, and American Review of Canadian Studies. She has reviewed for publications such as AI & Society, and Territory, Politics, Governance.
Furthermore, she is an exponent of the classical Indian dance style of Bharatnatyam (having trained and performed extensively in North America), and the Spanish dance style of Flamenco.
My research work has focused on the philosophical question of how we become political ‘subjects’ and the implications of the interactions between knowledge and power in the construction of political subjectivity in the histories of western political ideas.
My research/teaching expertise is trans-disciplinary and is at the intersection of Political Theory of Technology, Critical/Feminist Political Theories, Critical Security Studies, Continental Philosophy, and Media Studies, spanning three main disciplines: Political Science and International Relations with a specialty in Political Theory and the History of Ideas; Philosophy (specializing in Continental Political Philosophy, Critical Theory, and Feminist Epistemologies); and Media Studies (with special attention to the social, ethical and cultural consequences of digital mediation).
In particular, I am interested in exploring and understanding the politics of technologies/media (especially disruptive ones) and the chief challenges that informationalization/datafication pose for political subjectivity, especially in the context of contemporary surveillance societies and the global geopolitical dynamics between democracies (e.g. Canada, USA, European Union, Australia, India) and non-democracies (e.g. China, Russia). From 2015-2019, my research focused on the history of technological frameworks especially cybernetics, network-centricity algorithmic governance, critical and feminist responses to emergent media technologies and affect/emotions, and alternate ways of relating technicity to self and socio-political relations. From 2020 onwards, my research has explored the politics of technological contestation in democracies, the emergence of crisis policy narratives and biopolitics, the political theory of technology, and the ethics and politics of artificial intelligence.
Situated within the scholarship on AI Ethics, AI Governance, and AI-Human Relations, my recent and current work focuses on human-centric AI and the challenges posed by human-centric Al frameworks. I situate AI within the contexts of the human governance of algorithms and the algorithmic governance of humans. Focusing on theorizing ‘control’, I am concerned with developing an understanding of not only how humans attempt to control algorithmic and AI technologies, but also how these technologies simultaneous come to govern humans. My work is invested in asking the question of how humans might conceive of being governed by AI that evolve beyond human capacities. Does AI’s computations power threaten to exceed that of humans (and why would this be construed as a ‘threat’)? Is AI reshaping of human decision making in an irreversible way? To what extent are technologies of governance also technologies of inequity, exploitation and oppression? How should humans relate to AI: as ‘friend’ or as ‘threat’? Drawing from trans-disciplinary scholarship from Social Sciences, Humanities, and Information Studies, I am currently finishing a book manuscript that challenges the view that HAI (Humancentric AI) is an unproblematic solution for resolving current/future global problems. The aim of this book is to lay out the problems of human-centrism philosophically as well as provide a substantive critique of HAI, by exploring the conceptual and ethical limits of human-centrism from the theoretical perspectives of post-humanism, multi-species ethics, and feminist relational ontologies.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2015. “L’informe Cybernétique: Concepts of Information and the Contemporary Sciences”. In Philosophy and Technology, June, DOI 10.1007/s13347-015-0205-z, 3-7.
Nandita Biswas Mellamphy, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Alison Hearn and Svitlana Matviyenko. 2015. Co-Editors: The Fibreculture Journal, Special issue on ‘Apps and Affect’, issue 25. DOI: 10.15307/fcj.25
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2015 “Larval Terror and the Digital Darkside”. In E-International Relations. November 14. http://www.e-ir.info/2015/11/14/larval-terror-and-the-digital-darkside
Biswas Mellamphy, N. and Dan Mellamphy. 2015. “Welcome to the Electrocene”, Culture Machine, Special issue on Drone Culture, Dean Lockwood and Rob Coley (Eds.), Volume 16, 1-27.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. and Dan Mellamphy. 2015. “Synarchic Regulation and Algorithmic Governance”. In The Fibreculture Journal, special issue on ‘Apps and Affect’, co-edited by Nandita Biswas Mellamphy, Nick Dyer-Witheford, Alison Hearn and Svitlana Matviyenko, issue 25, DOI 10.15307/fcj.25.185.2015.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. and Dan Mellamphy. 2015. “The Critique of Transcendental Miserablism”. Parrhesia: The Journal of Critical Philosophy, number 22, 131-143.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. April 24-25, 2015. Keynote Address, “Apocalypse Now: The Spreading of Darkness at the Speed of Light”. Invited by Strategies of Critique XIX, York University.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. March 5, 2015. Keynote Address, “War in the Age of Intelligent Machines”. Invited by King’s University of Western Ontario Political Science Association.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. October 19, 2016. Fall Keynote, “Isis Unveiled: Clothing, Consent, Control”. Invited by Western Caucus on Women’s Issues in conjunction with Western’s Consent & Sexual Violence Awareness Week, Western University.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. April 5, 2016.Panel Presentation, “Meaningful Human Control and Lethal Automated Weapons”. Balsilie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo.
Mellamphy, Dan and Nandita Biswas Mellamphy. 2016. Editors. The Digital Dionysus: Nietzsche and the Network-Centric Condition. New York: Punctum Books, 2016. DOI: 10.21983/P3.0149.1.00.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2016. “Women Out of Time”. In After the ‘Speculative Turn’: Realism, Philosophy and Feminism, Katerina Kolozova et al (eds.), punctum, 133-158. DOI: 10.21983/P3.0152.1.00.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2016. “The Overhuman.” In Critical Posthumanism, Planetary Futures. Debashish Banerji et al. ed.), Springer, 33-48. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3637-5
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2016. “Ghost in the Shell Game: On the Metic Mode of Existence. In The Funambulist Papers: Volume 2 (New York: Punctum Books), 2015, 224-235. DOI: 10.21983/P3.0098.1.00.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. January 23, 2016.Keynote Address, “The Fog of Peace: War by any Other Means”. Social Science Student’s Council Conference, Western University.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. October 19, 2017. Keynote Address, “Approaching Post-Human Politics”, Posthuman Research Institute Speaker Series, Wilfrid Laurier University.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. March 2-4, 2017. Keynote, “The Californian Ideology”, Annual Graduate Conference Center for Study of Theory and Criticism/Modern Languages.
Schaffer, Scott and Nandita Biswas Mellamphy. 2018-19. Co-Editors Special Issue on ‘Cosmopolitanism, Social Inclusion, and Global Futures’: Frontiers of Sociology, https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/6544/cosmopolitanisms-social-inclusion-and-global-futures#impact
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. Invited talk and graduate seminar, “Larval War and Predatory Politics”, CalArts School of Critical Studies, October 2019, USA.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. Invited talk, “A.I. and the Futures of Governance”, Posthumanism Research Network, Wilfred Laurier University University, March 2019.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. Invited talk, “A.I. and Posthuman Futures”, Center for Transformative Media, The New School, December 7, 2018.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. February 14, 2018.Invited talk, “Post-Human Politics”, Designing Artificial Intelligence, Parsons: The New School, New York.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. April 14-15, 2018. Invited talk. “Hacking the Data Body: A Political Physiology of the Posthuman World”. Posthumanism Research Institute, Brock University.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. September 21, 2018. Keynote talk, “Nietzsche and the Network-centric Condition”, 24th International Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, University of Newcastle.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. September 19-20, 2019. Panel paper. “Humans out-of-the-loop?: Humancentrism and AI Ethics”. Research Center of Social and Cultural Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2021. “Humans ‘in the Loop’?: Human-Centrism, Posthumanism , and AI. Nature and Culture, 16(1), 11-27. https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2020.160102
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2021. “Re-thinking ‘Human-centric’ AI: An Introduction to Posthumanist Critique. Europe Now: A Journal of Research & Art, Special Issue on ‘Rethinking The Human in a Multispecies World’, issue 45. November 2021.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2021.“Rethinking Democracy”. In What is Democracy and How Do We Study It? Cameron Anderson and Laura Stephenson (eds.). University of Toronto Press, 191-206. ISBN: 9781487588571
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. April 29, 2021. Invited talk and graduate seminar, “Fuller-Spectrum Operations: The Emergence of Larval Warfare”, CalArts School of Critical Studies.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2022. “Challenging the Humanist Genre of Gender: Posthumanisms and Feminisms.” Different Voices: Gender and Posthumanism . Paola Partenza, Ozlem Karadag, and Emanuela Ettorre (Eds.), Brill Publishers, Leiden: Netherlands. 15-27. ISBN: 978-3-8471-1528-1
Nandita Biswas Mellamphy, Tyler Girard & Anne Campbell. 2022. Interpreting crises through narratives: the construction of a COVID-19 policy narrative by Canada’s political parties, Critical Policy Studies, Volume 17, issue 1, 142-161.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. Jan. 23, 2022Invited talk, “In-, On-, or Out-of the Loop? Gender and Standard/Non-Standard Posthumanisms”. School of Materialist Research.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2023. “The Fog of Peace: War on Terror, Surveillance States, and Post-human Governance.” Washington University Review of Philosophy 3: 63-82-20.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2023. “Edge{s} of the ‘Anthropocene’: Standard and Non-Standard Post-Humanisms”. Technophany, A Journal for Philosophy and Technology 2 (1):1-23.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. November 25, 2023. Keynote talk, “Posthuman Futures: Speculations on Governing AI.” Cosmic Brains, Synthetic Minds Symposium. Medialab Matadero/City of Madrid, Spain,. https://www.medialab-matadero.es/en/activities/cosmic-brains-public-symposium-and-performance
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2024. Posthuman Futures: Speculations on Governing AI. In Posthuman? Neue Perspektiven auf Natur/Kultur (Posthuman? New Perspectives on Nature/Culture). Torsten Cress, Oliwia Murawska, and Annika Schlitte (eds.). Brill/Fink. 239-260.
Biswas Mellamphy, N., & Vangeest, J. 2024. Human, all too human? Anthropocene narratives, posthumanisms, and the problem of “post-anthropocentrism”. The Anthropocene Review, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/20530196241237249.
Payler, M., Huo, C., Anderson, C., Biswas Mellamphy, N., & Alcantara, C. 2024. The Gender Gap and Academic Publishing in Political Science: Evidence from Canada. American Review of Canadian Studies, 54(2), 141–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2024.2349432
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. Panelist. May 1, 2024. “AI as a Source Of Risk To The Security Of Democracies”. Rotman Think Tank Research Retreat AI And Democracy. Western University.
Biswas Mellamphy, Nandita. Panelist. Oct 3, 2024. “Ethical Implications of AI in Warfare”. Starling Center for Just Technologies conference. Faculty of Information and Media Studies. Western University.
Biswas Mellamphy, N. 2025. Fuller Spectrum Operations: The Emergence of Larval Warfare. Digital War, 6:5 https://doi.org/10.1057/s42984-024-00099-8.
Biswas Mellamphy, N., & Vangeest, J. 2025. Rethinking AI Ethics: Moral Machines, Relational Artificial Intelligence and Ontogenesis. Currently under review in AI & Ethics journal.
Biswas Mellamphy, N., & Vangeest, J. 2025. Incalculability in the Age of ‘Algorithmic Enlightenment’. Currently under review in Critical Horizons.
Faculty Research Domains
Rotman Institute faculty members are listed below by shared research areas. Visit individual member profiles to learn more.