The Margins Review · Culture-Centered Approach

The recent  communication for social change intervention  to address sexual violence on a University campus created by Ms. Monica Baey, a student of Communication, reflects some of the best practices of communication for social change. In her incredibly brave articulation of her experience with sexual harassment, Ms. Baey creates a simple message. A message that draws attention to her experience, and in doing so, clearly communicates the broader culture of sexual violence. Her narrative points to specific structural sites and spaces (police, university) where justice is typically carried out and articulates clear demands for change.  Most importantly, her creative uses of digital communication bypass the traditional channels of communication. Her experience shared on  Instagram  through powerful visual storytelling, circulates in accelerated networks of sharing, and finds its way into the mainstream media. The first story on her experience appears on a...

University Boards, Politicians, University Administrators often are representatives of the power class, the elite.  Mostly White men and women sitting in positions of power determine, constrain, and actively shape the discursive structures in Universities (at most of the Universities that count in the neocolonial rankings, located in the North). The occasional person of color brings diversity to the administration, and yet is often structured to perform within the hegemonic norms of Whiteness. As Universities perform their everyday functions within these structures of Whiteness, they generate ongoing public relations around multiculturalism, positioning themselves to a global market of key stakeholders, including students. Diversity sells, as long as it is managed with a cultivated strategic image. Embedded within structures of Whiteness, Universities reproduce norms that keep intact White power and privilege.  Mostly determined by power brokers embedded in the ideolo...

# thehypocrisyofsocialmediaposturing .  D esis in the diaspora posturing solidarity with victims of Islamophobic terrorism in Christchurch and vouching their support for the toxic hyper-nationalist Right Wing hate politics of Narendra Modi is a widespread phenomenon, enabled by the culture of social media posturing.  Social media posturing, rife with labels, buttons, profile picture modifiers enable the superficial and hypocritical show of solidarity with the victims of Islamophobia while at the same time funding, supporting, and voting into Islamophobic politics.  The same profile picture can one day read "Kia Kaha Christchurch" and read another day "Mein bhi Chowkidaar."