Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

The COVID-19 Pandemic and Outbreak Inequalities: Migrants in the Margins Special Issue: American Behavioral Scientist Edited by: Satveer Kaur-Gill and Mohan J. Dutta ( Mohan Dutta ) Dear colleagues, American Behavioral Scientist is hosting a special issue on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on migrants in the margins. We are calling for abstracts by authors studying outbreak inequalities among precarious migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic. For this journal issue, we are seeking data specific articles theorizing outbreak inequalities studied by migration scholars, health communication scholars, political communication scholars, and medical anthropologists from across the globe. Migrant struggles at the margins during the COVID-19 pandemic amid global lockdowns rendered visible the amplified migrant health disparities. Precarious migrants were/are afflicted disproportionately during the COVID-19 crisis in countries such as Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, India, China,

This week's readings quite explicitly focused on the theme of resistance. At some point in my life I knew of only one meaning of resistance - armed or violent opposition. And now critical studies have given me more knowledge was understanding of what else can be constructed as resistance. We see resistance in Mallory & Stern's (2008) article Awakening as a Change Process Among Women at Risk for HIV Who Engage in Survival Sex . The authors highlight that one out of every five AIDS patients is a woman, and HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among African American women. More importantly, such AIDS prevalence seems to be more common among women who are marginalized by poverty drug abuse, and sex trade. The authors implicitly argues how addressing the root causes of such behavior among this population acts as resistance towards further victimization of these women. We then read about the resistive acts of the low income African American young females in Martyn & Hatchin

I grew up in a family of five that included my parents. I would say that it is an average family size in Bangladesh. Growing up, I was close to my parents, especially to my mother, although the idea of calling my mother my best friend (or even friend for that matter) never occurred to me. I was quite terrified of my father, as he would frequently ask me to memorize chapters from my text books all the time. For example, before going out to work in the morning, he would ask me to memorize chapters one through three in my physics, chemistry, and biology books. "When I come back form work in the afternoon, I will test you on your memorizations" he would say. So every second of the passing clock made me more worried as that would bring me closer to seeing my father again. But still, I felt close to both my parents - I loved them and respected them and I knew they will be there for me when I needed them. And still, they were not my friends in the way we use the word 'friend'