Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

Recently, I heard an articulation where a colleague made an evaluative statement about how international scholars present their research in such and such way, and how as an American, this scholar thought that this was an inferior way to present research compared to the American way, with the implied assumption that the American way is the "correct" way. This statement was followed by a qualifier about ethnocentrism. As somebody who often has had to deal with the international label (although I do have a US citizenship) in the past, I remember often having to just put up with arrogant and demeaning comments such as this from colleagues. However, the timing of this statement is appalling, given the growing presence of international scholars in the communication discipline, the increasing calls for internationalization, the fall of the US empire precisely because of this arrogance, and as exemplified in most recent years, the global criticism of this sort of US ethnocentrism. ...

In a recent piece co-authored with an advisee, we decided to not present effectiveness data in critiquing an intervention. The choice to not present the effectiveness data was a strategic choice situated in the critical impetus of CCA, based on the argument that the mainstream articulations of campaigns narrowly focus on effectiveness without attending to the dimensions of power, co-optation, and oppression that are often played out by the very same campaigns. Therefore, in our piece, we issued a call for the foregrounding of alternative criteria that question the very paradigm of effectiveness, the ways in which it is measured and reported etc. In one of our reviewers, a reviewer insisted that this was an unethical choice because the manuscript did not present the evidence that was available. What intrigues me about this argument made by the reviewer is how situated amidst ideology this specific evaluation of ethics is. Why is it that discussions of oppressive ideologies perpetrated b...

He comes With his interview protocols And questions About cultural practices, magic, and ritual. He Comes Because he has the tools Of this thing He calls Ethnography. Through which he says he can Figure out our culture And explain our weird customs. He comes To conquer Disguised as a friend Lives amidst us, eats our food, And dances in our pagan dances Only to write back To his other White friends About our primitive stories.

In our advisee group meeting today (Zhuo Ban, Uttaran Dutta, Vicky Ortiz, and Shaunak Sastry, October 30, 2010), we discussed the idea of solidarity through reflexivity (see Dutta & Pal, 2010. As we participate in culture-centered processes of change, how do we articulate projects of solidarity that work toward change and are simultaneously critical of the dominant articulations of emancipation in global discourses of neoliberalism? How can we create avenues for discussing meaningful local participation in global scapes that celebrates the agency of local participation even as it works toward points of critique, both of processes of neoimperialism and the processes of local hierarchies that carry out the marginalization of the subaltern? Solidarity is at once a journey of friendship and a reflexive process that is critically aware of the locations of power one inhabits and the silences attached to these locations. This critical awareness by turning the lens on the self creates entr...

I am reflecting on a very stimulating conversation I had with a student of mine at coffee today...It was a filled out room, there were other familiar faces, and the tables were situated pretty close by, so we had to somewhat monitor how loud we could get, and also watch our language/content somewhat, given the setting and our topic "Reflexivity, the postcolonial moment, dialogue, and proselytizing missions." This was an extension of an earlier class discussion where I had noted that "I feel more violated when someone is trying to convert me religiously than when a right wing republican says something really offensive about one of my ideals." The discussion in class was fruitful but for the sake of time, we had to move ahead to other topics. Our coffee conversation today was beautiful as it recognized for me once again the potential for dialogue as transcendental...When we explored ideas such as faith, the limits it places on dialogue, the openings it creates for dia...

One of the fundamental tenets of CCA is its struggle against academic opportunism and clientelism that are established in academic structures and the bureaucracies tied to these structures. The critiques offered by earlier CCA projects have continually drawn attention to the middle class elitism and clientelism of mainstream campaigns that continue to use the subaltern contexts as grounds for doing research, gathering data, and publishing papers, without really the commitment to actually listening or making a difference. This albeit is a theme that is continually articulated through CCA projects where communities discuss their marginalization and exploitation in the hands of researchers. It is precisely in this backdrop then that I find myself negotiating the lines of co-optive politics as the language of CCA is turning more toward fundable options. People that trashed ideas of community knowledge or community dialogue are all of a sudden interested in the conversation because there is...

One of the basic arguments of the Subaltern Studies project draws attention to the (im)possibilities of dialogue. There always has to be the acknowledgment that the fundamental essence of dialogue is brought into question by the project. Dialogue therefore is both contingent and fragmented, always open to re-interpretation. And also, it is precisely at this moment of dialogic intersections that the culture-centered approach outlines the relevance of engaging with the dominant structures, of challenging them, or bringing them to question, and of continually finding avenues for structural transformation. The politics of representation that must participate in aggregation in order to bring material change is itself situated amidst fragmented interpretations and dialectical tensions.