Abul Hasanat Bhuiyan, a 2023 graduate of the Anthropology program at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), has commenced a Master's by Thesis (Research) degree at Southern Cross University, Australia, with a full tuition fee waiver, focusing on the emerging field of digital anthropology and the social and cultural studies of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI).

Bhuiyan's research project, titled "Digital and Spectral Ethnography of AI-Generated Nostalgia among Gen Zs," explores how AI-generated content shapes experiences of nostalgia among younger generations and examines the cultural implications of digitally recreated pasts.

His academic journey reflects an interdisciplinary interest spanning anthropology, memory studies and technology studies. Against the backdrop of the growing integration of AI into everyday life, his work seeks to investigate the social and cultural dynamics surrounding the rise of GenAI.

The research draws inspiration from Bhuiyan's own experience of growing up in a pre-social media era and his longstanding interest in 1980s and 1990s popular culture. Reflecting on feelings of nostalgia for periods he did not directly experience, he became increasingly interested in the widespread presence of AI-generated nostalgic imagery and videos across social media platforms.

This observation led him to examine nostalgia as an emerging cultural phenomenon among Generation Z users, particularly as AI tools increasingly recreate and circulate representations of earlier decades as aesthetic and emotional experiences online.

His study analyses AI-generated videos and images inspired by the 1980s and 1990s, approaching them not merely as entertainment content but as cultural artefacts capable of producing forms of mediated or artificial nostalgia among users who did not directly experience those eras. Through this lens, the research aims to contribute to broader discussions on digital culture, memory and temporality.

Bhuiyan also seeks to develop and expand the concept of spectral ethnography as a methodological approach, combining digital ethnography of social media with theoretical engagement with AI-generated cultural content. The study examines how digital technologies influence the ways people imagine, experience and reconstruct the past in the present.

The research sits within the growing field of digital anthropology, which examines the cultural life of digital platforms and online communities, while also engaging with sociological and philosophical perspectives on memory, technology and mediated presence.

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