Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

One of the most persistent elements of Singapore academia is its shallow opportunism, its continual ability to place itself along the latest trends.  This culture of "keeping up with the trends" ensures the rankings and high scores on performance metrics.  This is perhaps most evident in the Humanities and Social Sciences. In Singapore, you discover a sort of performativity that emerges from the structures of the authoritarian state. The performativity translates into the rush for metrics, continually being updated to anticipate the trends and respond to them in adapting research programs, seminars, publications, and so on. The state has created powerful communicative strategies for its deep authoritarianism by embedding it in everyday practices of its academic institutions. You see this most powerfully play out in the sort of careerist opportunism Singapore cultivates in its academics. Academic opportunism on one hand, means keeping up with the fads, being ahead of the fads,...

June 05, 2025.  The New Zealand Parliament voted today to suspend for 21 days two MPs, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, the co-leaders of Te Pāti Māori, and for seven days the youngest MP, Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, who had performed the haka in the Parliament in protest to the racist and divisive Treaty Principles Bill. The Treaty Principles Bill, introduced by the right-wing ACT Party, is reflective of the Far-Right attack on New Zealand political economy, seeking to undo New Zealand's foundational document Te Tiriti O Waitangi. Fundamentally based on disinformation, the Treaty Principles Bill communicatively inverts the narrative of equality--reflecting similar far-right attacks on equity, dressed up as equality--being witnessed globally. In response to the introduction of the Bill (the first reading) in the New Zealand parliament, several Members of Parliament (MPs) expressed their opposition to the bill, with the Member of Parliament (MP) of Te Pati Māori Ha...

Figure 1: The Nakba that forms the infrastructure of Israeli settler colonialism   I was recently approached for a leadership opportunity.  The person (Let's call them Sam) that approached me for the role stated in great depth how much they valued my commitments to social justice, de-westernizing knowledge systems, and building spaces for the Global South. The position was crafted with the descriptors of social justice, decolonization, and building community that felt appealing. In his initial email, Sam noted that I was one of the top candidates for their group. After some deliberation, I decided to explore the conversation to see where it would take me.  Sam was convinced that this opportunity is a great fit for my career, and one I would find challenging in a meaningful way. They shared with me the various resources that would be available for building architectures, programmes, and pathways dedicated to social justice.  By the third iteration of the conversation,...