Date of Graduation

Spring 5-23-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Global Studies

College/School

College of Arts and Sciences

Department/Program

Global Studies

First Advisor

Ilaria Giglioli

Second Advisor

John Zarobell

Abstract

This research investigates the phenomenon of digital nationhood, the idea that a new form of community is actively produced through interactions taking place within digital social networks and forums. These spaces function as more than repositories of information or cultural archives; they are living ecosystems in which identity is constructed through mutual encounters among members of a diaspora, where shared references, meanings, and concepts proliferate across multiplex networks. The central questions animating this inquiry are: can a nation exist without a territory, and are these encounters producing what we might conceive of as a digital nation?

The Punjabi people serve as the primary subject and point of reference for this investigation, though the concept of the digital nation may be applied more broadly to other ethnic diasporas around the world, particularly those communities inadequately represented by any single nation-state or territory, or those whose homelands have been divided along political demarcations. California functions as a particularly salient research site, given its vibrant yet relatively young Punjabi community, its position as a global frontier of digital and technological innovation, and its geographic distance from the Punjabi homeland. The experiences of these new diasporic communities are considered in contrast to historical antecedents, such as the Punjabi-Mexican Californians and the Romani people, who departed the Indian subcontinent over a thousand years ago, passing through Afghanistan, Persia, the Balkans, and North Africa, and who gradually formed a new and distinct culture as memories of their homeland dissolved and transformed across generations.

This research is animated by the question of how digital social technologies alter the experience of the diaspora. An individual in California can now speak with and see someone in the United Kingdom, Pakistan, or India in real time, sharing references, music, memories, artifacts, and ideas, actively constructing a global cultural mythology. Through these channels, the diaspora discovers and builds the nation through encounters, repositories, and shared experience. Ultimately, this work asks and seeks to make sense of the question: do these encounters, assemblages, and linkages constitute what we may call a "digital nation"? Or do they produce something else entirely? A new formulation of collective identification that is fundamentally distinct from our traditional conceptions of ethnic nationhood?

Download

Share

COinS