Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

The organized and accelerated forms of attack on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the far-right political architectures of the U.S. and radiating from the U.S. to global spaces where white supremacy has historically reigned, reflect white backlash.  White backlash, or backlash from historic and entrenched structures of white supremacy, is specifically crafted by white supremacists to silence and erase diverse voices of resistance witnessing the violence and hypocrisies of white supremacy.  White backlash is specifically designed to threaten and erase diverse voices from the margins that have been produced by white supremacy.  It is directed at the plural registers of excellence that are being built locally and globally by Indigenous, Black, and people of color communities rendering visible the workings of white terror and white violence.   Trace here the emergence of the anti-DEI disinformation and hate infrastructure as a reflection of the whit...

Muslim celebrations of Ramadan Writing this blog post on this first day of March 2025, I feel joyful about the openings for renewal and hope this time brings.  This year, the colorful Hindu festival of Holi crisscrosses Muslim celebrations of Ramadan.  Anticolonial syncretism Growing up in Bengal in the 1980s, in the cosmopolitan town of Kharagpur, in a family that traversed interfaith spaces in our everyday lives and relationships, both these festivals reflected invitations to love across difference, to connect, and to explore possibilities of mutuality.  Hindu celebrations of Holi This anchor to mutuality formed the heart of a decolonizing politics in the South Asian subcontinent, actively creating a register that resisted the colonizing whiteness of divide and rule strategies.  Against these violent strategies of manipulation created by the British through the careful study of colonized societies, anticolonial resistance sutured spaces of dialogue and building bri...

Disrupting and Consolidating Communication Research: Applying Communication Theory to Practice June 12-June 16, 2025 Massey University, Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand Oceania Hub: Aotearoa New Zealand Hosted by Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) Communication and Media Studies at Massey University Organizers: Debalina Dutta, Sy Taffel, Sean Phelan, & Mohan Dutta Call for Submissions Due Date: March 7, 2025, 11:59 pm NZST The Oceania Hub of the International Communication Association (ICA) 2025 conference, hosted at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand, explores questions surrounding disrupting Communication Research through the lens of Te Tiriti and Social Justice . Drawing on communication scholarship organized around the various registers of social justice, the Hub examines the intersections of communication theorizing and practice, mobilized toward disruptions and consolidation. The hub will be held in hybr...

Figure 1: Trump, Vance and their partners responding to the remarks by Mariann Edgar Budde   Emergent from the struggles of the civil rights movement , led by African Americans , organized against the oppressive history of settler colonialism and slavery that forms the backbone of US society, structures around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) formed an integral role in forging spaces for diverse recognition and representation.  These struggles around affirmative action, diversity, equity and inclusion were at the heart of the changes to white only immigration policies, building pathways for migration of diverse peoples from the Global South.  The changes to the immigration policies created opportunities for Indians to migrate to the US, with a rise of Indian immigration into the US since the 1970s into educational institutions, research and development infrastructures, and technology-finance infrastructures. These migratory structures into the US were leveraged by l...

With choto pishi and pishemoshai, enjoying a meal she prepared. These meals are a part of the journey home. Familial spaces of love and care, extending to wide networks of familial connections, offer powerful registers of sustenance.  Reflecting upon my childhood and my large joint family, Dutta Bari , I grew up in, I am drawn to the pedagogy of care that has shaped the ways in which I relate to the world, anchored powerfully by my mothers, aunts, and grandmother.  Within this broader ecosystem of care, my aunts (father's sisters) played salient roles, upholding us, their eighteen nieces and nephews with love, joy, and friendship.  From our aunts, we learned the practices of eternal kindness, knowing we could go to them with whatever requests we had, big and small. From our aunts, we learned the power of our collective, connecting us to land and place, tying us to the roots that shape our everyday lives. Choto pishi is my youngest aunt, beautiful, soft spoken, and kind. A...

  Submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill   I am Mohan Dutta, Dean’s Chair Professor of Communication at Massey University, Director of the Center for Culture-Centred Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE). I am a Fellow of the International Communication Association, a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association, and recognized among the Top 2% of social scientists globally (Stanford University rankings). One of my areas of research and that of my research team at CARE explores the impact of disinformation on social cohesion and human health. Broadly within this theme, I study the roles of marginalising discourses, foreign interference, and organised campaigns designed to threaten democracy on health and wellbeing of communities that are systematically disenfranchised because of structural inequalities. I begin by noting that my family and I love Aotearoa, and that when I was considering multiple international appointments, Aotear...