Dr Aditya Deshbandhu

Lecturer Digital Media Sociology (E&R)

Overview

I am a Lecturer of Communications, Digital Media Sociology at the University of Exeter. In my research, I examine video games, new media platforms and practices, and the many understandings of the digital divide. I also try to understand how people engage with digital artefacts, and how these interactions shape their everyday lives. As someone who actively examines digital acts of leisure, my research in the last decade has examined social media and OTT platforms alongside video games and digital cultures. I am also the author of Gaming Culture(s) in India: Digital Play in Everyday Life and the forthcoming The 21st Century in a Hundred games. Lastly, I also serve as an editor on Routledge's book series: Games and Contemporary Culture.

Research

Video Game Studies

Digital Cultures

The Digital Divide

Supervision

I look forward to engaging in conversations that seek to understand gaming cultures and practices from a variety of contexts. I also examine specific trends in Digital Cultures and the idea of the Digital Divide is one such strand that I always focus on.

Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |

2024

Deshbandhu A, Raman U. (2024) The Digital Shaping of a City: A Biography of ‘Cyberabad’ in Three Acts, The Palgrave Handbook of Everyday Digital Life, Palgrave McMillan, 61-75.

2023

Roy D, Deshbandhu A. (2023) 3 Digital Humanities, Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, volume 31, no. 1, pages 45-60, DOI:10.1093/ywcct/mbad015.
Deshbandhu A. (2023) Juxtapositions and Transformations: Children, Gaming and Society, Childscape, Mediascape: Children and Media in India, Orient Blackswan, 116-136.
Deshbandhu A, Raman U. (2023) Stuart Hall and IAMCR, Reflections on the International Association for Media and Communication Research Many Voices, One Forum, Palgrave Macmillan, 487-496.
Deshbandhu A. (2023) Capturing the Holistic, Journal of Autoethnography, volume 4, no. 2, pages 277-282, DOI:10.1525/joae.2023.4.2.277. [PDF]

2022

Deshbandhu A, Sahni S. (2022) Repurposing a WhatsApp group: How a fantasy cricket group transformed into a site of care and support during India's second wave of Covid-19, Mobile Media & Communication, volume 11, no. 2, pages 271-293, DOI:10.1177/20501579221137998. [PDF]
Deshbandhu A, Innamuri R, Kattula D. (2022) Developing a ludic framework for counteracting interventions for dementia: A narrative and analytic review, Annals of Geriatric Education and Medical Sciences, volume 9, no. 1, pages 1-5, DOI:10.18231/j.agems.2022.001. [PDF]
Deshbandhu A. (2022) Ludic Prognostication. Games as Sites for Simulating the Future, Gamevironments, volume 16, no. 1, pages 1-32, DOI:10.48783/gameviron.v16i16.186. [PDF]
Deshbandhu A. (2022) Gender, citizenship, and identity in the Indian blogosphere: Writing the everyday: by Sumana Kasturi, 2019, London and New York, Routledge, 208 pp.,£ 96.00 hardback,£ 29.59 e-book ISBN 9781138500037 hardback, ISBN 9780429342011 e-book.
Roy D, Deshbandhu A. (2022) Anxious postcolonial masculinity in online video games: race, gender and colonialism in Indian digital spaces, Gender, Place & Culture, volume 29, no. 1, pages 104-129.
Deshbandhu A. (2022) Gender, Citizenship, and Identity in the Indian Blogosphere: Writing the Everyday, GENDER PLACE AND CULTURE, volume 29, no. 5, pages 741-744, DOI:10.1080/0966369X.2021.1932970. [PDF]
Roy D, Deshbandhu A. (2022) Anxious postcolonial masculinity in online video games: race, gender and colonialism in Indian digital spaces, Gender, Place and Culture, volume 29, no. 1, pages 104-129, DOI:10.1080/0966369X.2020.1858030.
Deshbandhu A, Roy D, Kushal S. (2022) Hybrid habitats: Remediating leisure, space and youth through Pokémon Go in India, Journal of Leisure Research, volume 53, no. 4, pages 532-555, DOI:10.1080/00222216.2022.2073491.
Roy D, Das M, Deshbandhu A. (2022) Postcolonial pandemic publics: examining social media health promotion in India during the COVID-19 crisis, Health Promot Int, volume 37, no. 2, DOI:10.1093/heapro/daab076. [PDF]

2021

Sarwatay D. (2021) Book Review: Aditya Deshbandhu, Gaming Culture (s) in India: Digital Play in Everyday Life.
Nargundkar RV, Deshbandhu A. (2021) Risk, Anxiety in a Pandemic: Consequences for Travel and Tourism, The Journal of Applied Business and Economics, volume 23, no. 1, pages 199-213.
Kasturi S. (2021) Book Review: Gaming Culture (s) in India: Digital Play in Everyday Life, by Aditya Deshbandhu.
Pandit S. (2021) Mapping the digital playground: Review of Gaming culture (s) in India by Aditya Deshbandhu, Media Asia, volume 48, no. 3, pages 234-236.

2020

Deshbandhu A. (2020) Charting the Indian gamescape: Redrawing lines of access, Gaming Culture (s) in India, Routledge India, 89-114.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Introduction: Ludic beginnings: gaming journeys and experiences, Gaming Culture (s) in India, Routledge India, 1-11.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Building tools to map the ludic everyday, Gaming Culture (s) in India, Routledge India, 34-55.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Fun, magic and play: Theories of gaming, Gaming Culture (s) in India, Routledge India, 12-33.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Gaming as a site of contestation, Gaming Culture (s) in India, Routledge India, 115-145.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Player perspectives: Gamers and gamerworthiness 1, Gaming Culture (s) in India, Routledge India, 56-88.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Friends, communities and networks: Gaming is social, Gaming Culture (s) in India, Routledge India, 146-173.
Murray PR, Deshbandhu A, Chakraborti S. (2020) Designing and Gaming: Doing Digital Humanities in India, DH.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Towards a Monopoly: Examining FIFA’s Dominance in Simulated Football, Gamevionments, volume 12, no. 1, pages 49-76.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Gaming Culture(s) in India Digital Play in Everyday Life, Taylor & Francis.
Deshbandhu A. (2020) Gaming Culture(s) in India Digital Play in Everyday Life, Routledge India.

2019

Deshbandhu A. (2019) Unpacking Binging: New Ways of Production & Consumption, International Journal of Media Studies, volume 1, no. 1, pages 69-82.
Rautalahti H. (2019) " How video games changed my life": Life-Changing Testimonies and The Last of Us, gamevironments, no. 10, pages 38-38.
Deshbandhu A. (2019) Decoding Fantasy Football: A Ludic Perspective, Gamevironments, volume 10, no. 1, pages 85-116.

2016

Deshbandhu A. (2016) Player perspectives: what it means to be a gamer, Press Start, volume 3, no. 2, pages 48-64.

2015

Pavarala V, Malik KK, Belavadi V, Deshbandhu A, Raghunath P. (2015) Community Radio Continuous Improvement Toolkit: Version 2.0 [Hindi].

2014

Pavarala V, Malik KK, Belavadi V, Deshbandhu A, Raghunath P. (2014) Community Radio Continuous Improvement Toolkit (CR-CIT), Version 2.0.

2013

Pavarala V, Malik KK, Belavadi V, Deshbandhu A, Raghunath P. (2013) Community Radio Continuous Improvement Toolkit, CEMCA. [PDF]

External impact and engagement

Media

Mainstream/Popular Writing (March 2017-): I write the weekly column “Game On” (every Monday) that focuses on video games and developments in the gaming industry. Published by Telangana Today (an English Daily based out of Hyderabad, India). I have written over 300 articles written since March 2017-.

Teaching

Modules taught

Biography

I am a Lecturer of Communications, Digital Media Sociology at the University of Exeter. In my research I engage with developments in the fields of video game studies, new media, and the digital divide. I examine how people engage with digital artefacts and understand how these interactions shape everyday lives.

I joined the Communications programme at Exeter from the Indian Institute of Management - Indore, India where I served as an Assistant Professor in the Communication Area. I hold Doctoral and Masters' degrees in Communication from the University of Hyderabad, India.

I am also the author of Gaming Culture(s) in India: Digital Play in Everyday Life and the forthcoming The 21st Century in a Hundred games. Lastly, I also serve as an editor on Routledge's book series: Games and Contemporary Culture.

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