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Internationalizing the discipline? The politics of time zones and meetings


It is great to witness the increasing acknowledgment of diverse geographies on the registers of our disciplinary associations.

The term "global" as a signifier entering into disciplinary conversations offers an anchor for starting to de-center the US-centrism of the discipline. 

It is the beginning of the acknowledgment that Communication Studies has historically been US-centric and in this sense, deeply parochial. 

The Cold War roots of the discipline, underlying the US-centric hegemony, drive the basic assumptions that have shaped our discipline, taking for granted the US centric norms. 

The US is ever-present by its absence as a site/space in disciplinary conversations. 

While the elsewheres of geographies is where globalization happens, the US core and its taken for granted assumptions shape the contours through which globalization is conceptualized and engaged. This functioning around US assumptions unfortunately is also perpetrated by many people of colour, Global South origin scholars who otherwise clamor to lay claim on their Global South connections to perform some form of marginality.

One such site where taken-for-granted assumptions around US-centrism run deep is in the organizing of meetings around time zones. 

As US-based communication associations have sought to expand their global reach, it has meant that there are increasing demands on scholars located elsewhere to support the global efforts.

However, the ways in which meetings are organized often give away the assumptions and power of the US core. 

Most meetings therefore are set up on time zones that suit US scholars, around US working hours, childcare duties, and sleep zones. US-based scholars articulate freely their need for attending to children, going to bed, regular work hour meetings at the University etc.

Scholars of the "elsewhere" by extension are naturally expected to wake up at midnight, stay up until 1 am., wake up at 2 am, or stay chirpy at 4 am. 

The circadian rhythms, sleep cycles, and familial roles of the elsewhere are often simply taken-for-granted, incorporated into the assumption that bodies elsewhere will adapt to the needs of the US-based disciplinary machine to globalize.

Bodies from elsewhere, health and wellbeing in the elsewhere, need for rest in the elsewhere can be sacrificed so the discipline can expand its global reach.

Internationalizing the discipline thus further entrenches the US status quo while perpetuating harm on the discipline's elsewheres.

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