Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

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...

As the Trump universe devolves into a meltdown between the MAGA white supremacist base and the far-right Silicon Valley Big Tech base, the responses of the segment of the Trump supporting upper caste techies offers critical insights into the workings of caste in the technology sector in the diaspora. Although this particular analysis focuses on the U.S., we can see similar patterns of racist upper caste Indian investment in upholding the far-right across the West, including in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this post, I will analyze the response of an X handle Siddharth @Cloudwatch199 that declares itself as "High skilled Indian Immigrant. Investor. I'm a Technopreneur & Engineer. I create jobs and work with young Indian and American grads." The handle is accompanied by the U.S. and Indian flags, announcing its patriotism. I will mark in bold the key words in the tweets to help you see the pattern. Responding to the anger in the white supremacist base of MAGA around Trump...