RONO HILLS, Nov 3: A two-day interdisciplinary national conference, DIGI-TRIBIDENTITY 2026 themed ‘Digital Frontiers and Indigenous Voices: Navigating Tribal Identity in the Age of Social Media’, concluded at the Rajiv Gandhi University premises here today.
Conducted in blended mode, the conference attracted more than 100 registered participants, with around 75 attending physically on the first day and approximately 50 participating physically on the second day. A total of 38 research papers were presented, comprising 17 offline and 21 online presentations.
The conference featured seven technical sessions, four invited talks and a round-table discussion, providing an interdisciplinary platform to examine indigenous identity, cultural preservation, traditional knowledge systems, indigenous language preservation, digital archiving, artificial intelligence, social media, environmental communication, regional cinema and digital representation. The sessions facilitated academic exchange among participants from around 14 institutions.
The technical sessions were chaired by academicians and professionals from various institutions, including Prof Ravindra Kumar Vermula, Prof Irene Lalruatkimi, Prof Mohammad Fariyad, Dr Manoj Deori, Prof Uttam Kumar Pegu, B B Sharma, Prof Abhijit Bora, Prof Manash Pratim Goswami, Prof Charvak, Prof Sanjeev Banawat and Prof Joya Chakraborty.
The sessions encouraged scholarly engagement with emerging digital technologies and their implications for indigenous communities and cultural representation.
A round-table discussion on ‘Towards an Ethical Digital Future for Tribal North-East India,” was chaired by Prof Vermula.
Addressing the valedictory session, Prof Vermula appreciated the participation of scholars and acknowledged the quality of the research papers presented.
Prof Fariyad described the conference theme as timely and significant, stressing the need for continued academic engagement with digital media and indigenous identity.
Prof Pegu encouraged emerging researchers to participate in academic forums, besides using feedback and critical reviews constructively to strengthen their research.