Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

In one of the emails that ended up with the marching orders to ban Howard Zinn from Indiana K-12 classrooms, Mitch Daniels noted, Zinn's " A People's History of the United States " “is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page.”   These are serious allegations posed by Daniels, then governor of Indiana and now President of a research public University with a strong global reputation for its research integrity. I am sure Daniels understands the grave consequences of such allegations for academics, if proven correct.  Mitch was governor when he issued the directive to purge Indiana K-12 classes of " A People's History ." The heavy handed involvement of politicians in the sphere of education however is not new. We have seen for instance how the governor of Colorado used his position of influence to call for the dismissal of then University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill for

In a recent round of reports published in media outlets, we have learned that the current Purdue President Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana, directed via email his top education officials to “get rid of” the work of the noted historian Howard Zinn from K-12 classrooms in Indiana. Referring to Zinn’s   People’s History of the United States as ‘truly execrable,’ anti-factual, crappy and dishonest, then governor Daniels ordered his staff to act to make sure that Zinn’s work is not being offered across schools in Indiana.  He wrote: “Can someone assure me that it is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of history?” Daniels’ order to his top state education officials comes across as an off-the-cuff directive directed at censoring Zinn. Unlike the deliberate engagement that is integral to academic evaluation, Daniels throws a number of serious charges at Zinn but does

Black, darkness Crime, violence Fear, Your imagination. You will mark me and sketch my existence to justify Your oppression. You will steal my hopes my dreams my labour my words my voice. You will come save me And pretend to be the righteous champion of human rights. Threat, you will say I am to your safety even as you Pull the trigger on my beating heart. Black, you will say in need of salvation anger riot violence. It is in your Whiteness that I will witness stories of war stories of theft stories of rape.  

That addressing health disparities in the US is an important priority is evident in the large numbers of grant calls that are put out by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). These calls are issued in the backdrop of large scale data that document a wide range of disparities in health outcomes.  Specifically in the context of race, there are large disparities between Blacks and Whites in mortality and morbidity, as well as in disease-specific outcomes.  These health disparities in many instances persist even after controlling for social class. In other words, within the same social class, African Americans typically experience poorer health outcomes compared to Whites. Based on the notion that these health disparities are unacceptable, number of health campaigns are carried out that are directed at addressing these disparities. They focus on information dissemination, attitude change, and behavioural factors. The targets of these interventions are African

From a communicative perspective, this study seeks to understand how development operates as discourse, in creating and perpetuating conditions of structural absences, and how the subalterns at the margins negotiate and enact their agencies in legitimizing their voices and participatory actions in the discursive spaces. Historically, colonial and Brahminical doctrine portrayed indigenous subalterns as inferior and sub-human; subsequently , modernist epistemology driven dominant development approach labeled them as objects or sites of reform and control. Mainstream development communication approach employed unilateral tailored interventions in diffusing development , and transferring technology in the underserved spaces to ‘ modernize ’ the subalterns. Increasingly structural, cultural, and contextual issues have received importance in the contemporary theories of communication for development and social change. This study embraced the theoretical and methodological fra

Tomorrow, I present my concept paper " Interrogating neoliberal ideologies of HIV/AIDS Communication: Power, Control, and Agency " at the IAMCR conference in Dublin. The paper is a key component of my upcoming book on "Neoliberalism and Health Communication" to be published by Left Coast Press. Here is the summary of the key arguments in the piece: HIV/AIDS has witnessed a global response over the last decade. Global NGOs, Foundations, private corporations, and state governments have joined hands in tackling HIV/AIDS. Prevention services and health care services in the domain of HIV/AIDS are framed within the interconnected linkages of Foundations, private corporations and nation states. The ideology guiding the global work on HIV/AIDS is shaped within the organizing framework of neoliberalism, privileging market rationality in addressing HIV/AIDS. (a) the response to HIV/AIDS has been taken over by large Foundations such as the Gates Foundation, UNAIDS

The fieldwork in May 2013 focused on developing frameworks around the key problems faced by community members in the villages and the corresponding solutions the community members envisioned. This round of culture-centered fieldwork worked on the scope of the problems that the community would begin its work on. The community had already decided the broad scope of problems. Our role, my role, as a researcher and the role of the community organizer, are tied to developing the scope of solutions to be implemented in the community as identified by community members. In this round of conversations, the community members identified the problem of water for irrigation as the key problem facing the community. This was also identified through the in-depth interviews and earlier ethnographic work as the primary problem in the community, connected to the experiences of food insecurity and the struggles with poverty. Community members identified the need to build (a) deep tube well, and

Rotin , a student from a moffusil town of Bengal, once came to work with me as a student. He wanted to make change in the world, make a real difference in the rural Bengal that he had seen around him growing up. Growing up in moffusil Bengal, he had seen a lot of poverty all around him. He had grown up amidst the poverty. He wanted to earn a PhD because he wanted to make a difference in the world. He felt that learning the tools of communication would equip him with the tools that he needed to work on grassroots change. He didn't talk much, usually just smiled at me when I pushed him to work harder or become more confident in his ways. When I shared with him my journeys of fighting back and shared why I felt he needed to express his convictions boldly, he just smiled back at me. I wanted him to share the anger that we experienced as academics of color in an academe so ensconced in its expectations of Whiteness. And Rotin just smiled in silence. In his silence, I s