HOYNG, Rolien
Assistant Professor

B.A. & M.A. in History, University of Amsterdam

B.A. & M.A. in Comparative Literature, University of Amsterdam 

Research M.A. in Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam

Ph.D. in Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

 (852) 3943-5300
 (852) 2603-5007
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 Research Interests:

• Digital Infrastructure & Culture
• Politics of Data
• Media, Political Ecology & Waste
• Media, Publics & Dissent
• Technology, Globalization & Nonwestern Cities
• Cultural Theory

 Current Research:

My current project explores digital infrastructure and culture in Hong Kong and Istanbul. It is funded through an ECS grant from Hong Kong’s Research Grants Council. I am interested in questions of technology in particular contexts of use, where technological material affordances meet cultural aspirations and signification. For instance, I explore the politics of “openness” by looking at Open Data and fintech in Hong Kong. Furthermore, I look at data-centric governance and constructions of “accidentalness” in communication pertaining to e-waste and ecology. Last, I study smart urbanisms and the socio-technical networks of activism. Focused on two nonwestern global cities, my project might tell us more about globalization, not as a story of all-encompassing connectivity and free flow but of struggle over political subjectivity and belonging, data-centric forms of cognition and control as well as emerging ethical norms and political imaginaries.

Teaching Interests:

• Digital Media and Culture
• Critical and Cultural Theory
• Global Media
• Qualitative Methods
• STS

Competitive Grants and Fellowships

• Principal Investigator, “Rerouting Free Flow: An Inter-Asian Exploration of the Politics of Data,” University Grants Council Hong Kong SAR Government, 2017.
• Conference Convener, “Digital Media and Borders: Infrastructures, Mobilities, and Practices Across Asia and Beyond.” Conference Organization Grant, Lingnan University, 2017.
• Principal Investigator, “Free Flow: Informational and Infrastructural Politics in Hong Kong,” Lingnan University, 2015.
• Principal Investigator, “Excess Creativity: Invention and Imitation from Techno Park to Street Market,” Lingnan University, 2015.
• Co-investigator, “Popular Creativity: Technologies of Productive Citizenship in Hong Kong,” Lingnan University, 2014.
• Principal Investigator, “Governmentality through Connection: Urban Citizenship and Technology in Hong Kong,” Lingnan University, 2013.
• Principal Investigator, Cultuurbeurs, Prins Bernhard Culture Foundation/ Carolus Magnus Foundation, Amsterdam, 2010.
• Summer Research Fellowship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2011.
• Residence Fellowship, Netherlands Institute in Turkey. Istanbul, Turkey, 2011.

Advice to students:

“I am not interested in Theory, I am interested in going on theorizing” – Stuart Hall

Publication List:

Academic

Hoyng, R. (first author) & Chong, GPL. (forthcoming). New, old, and uncertain futures: Communication innovation in comparison. In R. Hoyng and GPL Chong (Eds.), Communication innovation and its infrastructures: A critique of the new in a multipolar world. Michigan State University Press. (Introduction to edited volume).

Hoyng, R. (2021). Digital infrastructure and the politics of liminality. International Journal of Communication, 15, 2600–2612. 

Hoyng, R. & Es, M. (2020). Material politics facing post-truth: Speculation, infrastructure and ecology in Turkey. Antipode, 52 (6), 1731-1750.

Hoyng, R. (2020). From Open Data to “grounded openness”: Recursive politics and postcolonial struggle in Hong Kong. Television and New Media. https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476420931444 

Hoyng, R. (2020). Platforms for populism? The affective issue crowd and its disconnections. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 12(6), 984-1001. 

Hoyng, R. (2019). Aggregations of the opaque: Rethinking datafication and e-waste. First Monday, 24(4). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9866/7747 

Hoyng, R. (2018). Logistics of the accident: E-waste management in Hong Kong. In B. Neilson, N. Rossiter & R. Samaddar (Eds.), Logistical Asia: The labor of making a world region (pp. 199 – 220). Singapore: Palgrave McMillan.

Hoyng, R. (2018). The politics of skilland potential in an “emerging” region: Upskilling initiatives in Istanbul. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 21(6), 651–668.

Hoyng, R. (2017). Transparency in the rupture? Open Data and the datafication of society. Tecnoscienza: Italian Journal of Science and Technology Studies, 8(20), 190-195.

Hoyng, R. & Es, M. (2017). Conspiratorial webs: Media ecology and parallel realities in Turkey. International Journal of Communication 11, 4219-4238.

Hoyng, R. (2017). Politics by other means: Post-digital gameplay in Hong Kong. Javnost-The Public, 24(3), 284-299.

Servaes, J. (50%) and Hoyng, R. (50%). (2017). The tools of social change: A critique of techno-centric development and activism. New Media & Society, 19(2), 255-271.

Hoyng, R. (2016). From infrastructural breakdown to data vandalism: Re-politicizing the smart city? Television and New Media, 16(5), 397-415.

Hoyng, R. (2016). A socio-technical contract: network governance and ICT4D in Turkey. Telematics and Informatics, 33, 139–149.

Hoyng, R. (2014). Place brands, nonbrands, tags, and queries: The networks of urban activism in the creative city Istanbul. Cultural Studies, 28(3), 494-517.

Hoyng, R. (2014). Circuits of shock and bunk: testing citizenship in the Dutch blogosphere. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 17(4), 347-362.

Hoyng, R. (2012). Popping up, fading out: Participatory networks and Istanbul’s creative city project. Culture Machine, 3, 1-23.

Translations

Hoyng, R. (2020). Başka araçlarla siyaset: Hong Kong’ta post-dijital oyun” (Politics by other means: Post-digital gameplay in Hong Kong). In Mutlu Binark (Ed.), Asya’da popüler kültür ve medya. Um:ag Vakfı Yayınları. Translation by Umut Yener Kara.

Other Writings (Selected)

Hoyng, Rolien. “Data Centers: In the Middle of Nowhere and Everywhere.” (Forthcoming online publication)

Hoyng, Rolien and Murat Es. (2015). “Censorship and Conspiracy Theories Rule the Day in Post- Election Turkey.” Open Democracy, November 4, 2015. Available at: https://opendemocracy.net/murat-es-rolien-hoyng/censorship-and-conspiracy-theories-rule-day-in-post-election-turkey

Hoyng, Rolien and Murat Es. (2014). “Umbrella Revolution: The Academy Reflects on Hong Kong’s Struggle.” Open Democracy, October 2, 2014. Available at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/rolien-hoyng-murat-es/umbrella-revolution-academy-reflects-on-hong-kong%E2%80%99s-struggle

Conference Presentations

Hoyng, R. S. (2019). Datafication and Futures of Electronic Waste. Paper presented at FAT/Asia Conference, Digital Asia Hub, The University of Hong Kong.

Hoyng, R. S. (2019). In-formation: Data and E-Waste Matter. Paper presented at Association for Philosophy and Literature 2019 Conference.

Hoyng, R. S. (2018). Aggregations of the Obscure: Data and E-Waste in Hong Kong. Paper presented at the 12th Biennale Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 2018.

Hoyng, R. S. (2018). Refurbishing Opacity: Data and Logistics in E-Waste Recycling. Paper presented at Digital Cultures Conference 2018.

Hoyng, R. S. (2018, June). Post-digital gameplay in Hong Kong. Presentation conducted at Current Perspectives in Game Studies 2018, Hong Kong.

Hoyng, R. S., & Es, M. (2018, June). Infrastructure, ecology and publics in post-global Istanbul. Presentation conducted at Fifth South-South Forum on Sustainability: Transformative Visions and Praxi 2018, Hong Kong.

Hoyng, R. S. (2018, May). Spinning beyond control: Matter-data-image in e-waste recycling. Presentation conducted at The Anthropocene and Beyond Conference, Hong Kong.

Hoyng, R. S., & Es, M. (2018, February). Accidental publics: Infrastructure and ecological relations in Istanbul. Presentation conducted at India-Turkey Workshop and Research Planning Meeting.

Hoyng, R. S., & Es M. (2018, March). Measuring the populist pulse: Digital intimacy and its metadata in Turkey. Presentation conducted at International Centre for Advanced Studies Inaugural Meeting: Populism and the Shifting Coordinates of the Political, New Delhi, India.

Hoyng, R. S. (2017, October). Transparency as rupture: open data and datafication in Hong Kong. Presentation conducted at Annual meeting of Association of Internet Research (AOIR) 2017, Tartu, Estonia.

Hoyng, R. S. (2017, July). Open data and the datafied society of Hong Kong. Presentation conducted at Digital Humanities Benelux Conference 2017, Utrecht, the Netherland.