Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

Holding his hands Strong and gentle You learned to walk the road ahead. Hearing his voice Calm and soothing You learned to dream the world in front of you. Hearing his stories Of heroes and wanderers You learned to imagine the beginnings that are new. Listening to his lullabies Of justice and peace You learned to sing The songs of justice and equality. In his stories And in your stories For your father And for my father… We imagine These little boy dreams These new imaginations And these new stories to be told.

In a blog post in July titled “Tenure in Singapore and West-Centric Discourse,” I had discussed the hypocrisy of US rhetoric of free speech that gets easily thrown around in a celebratory story of American exceptionalism narrated through the lens of free speech. In that article, commenting upon the monolithic articulations about Singapore made by US academics on the tenure case of Dr. Cherian George, I had shared stories of the US academics Ward Churchill and Norman Finkelstein who had been systematically silenced from US academe because they offended the status quo of American society. Both these academics were ultimately cast out of US academe because they voiced uncomfortable truths. The reality in the US I had argued is that academics are indeed fired if they don’t tow the line and if they offend the normative expectations of the status quo. As in the case of Churchill and Finkesletin, articulations of civility and arguments of quality are often used simultaneo...

As a student of the media, I have been struck by the Hypocrisy of the media freedom narrative that have over the last six decades been a key instrument of American global control. The US uses this narrative as a bully pulpit, as an instrument of global dominance, articulating the narrative of freedom to invade, colonize, kill, and rage war. This is the Hypocrisy of the contemporary face of US hegemony, one that has material consequences experienced in the forms of economic exploitation, subjugation of people, mass killings, rapes, and destruction of civilizations. That the notion of free media that seeks out objective, value-free grounds of truth is a farce became evident during the timeframe building into the Iraq war. Working with colleagues and graduate students on a series of content analyses of mass media coverage, I had demonstrated how media frames continued to sing the freedom song of America, at the same time reiterating the unfounded narrative of "weapons of mass ...

Early in my academic career, as a fresh assistant professor who had the privilege to be introduced to strong networks of industry professionals by my Professors, I once found myself in the midst of an ethical quandary. I had worked with a private organisation and worked through a nationally robust dataset to arrive at what I felt some pretty interesting conclusions: That mainstream health campaigns often reach out to those that are already healthy was one of the conclusions of this work. Therefore, I concluded, large numbers of health campaigns, with an information-driven focus and with emphasis on information-based channels, are often likely to reach out to those that are already healthy. It is somewhat the problem of preaching to the choir. Now, I thought these conclusions were novel and was truly excited about them. What followed after the piece was published however was something I didn't expect. My research contact at the organisation wrote a  stern email to me, perhaps f...

In one of the emails that ended up with the marching orders to ban Howard Zinn from Indiana K-12 classrooms, Mitch Daniels noted, Zinn's " A People's History of the United States " “is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page.”   These are serious allegations posed by Daniels, then governor of Indiana and now President of a research public University with a strong global reputation for its research integrity. I am sure Daniels understands the grave consequences of such allegations for academics, if proven correct.  Mitch was governor when he issued the directive to purge Indiana K-12 classes of " A People's History ." The heavy handed involvement of politicians in the sphere of education however is not new. We have seen for instance how the governor of Colorado used his position of influence to call for the dismissal of then University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill for ...

In a recent round of reports published in media outlets, we have learned that the current Purdue President Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana, directed via email his top education officials to “get rid of” the work of the noted historian Howard Zinn from K-12 classrooms in Indiana. Referring to Zinn’s   People’s History of the United States as ‘truly execrable,’ anti-factual, crappy and dishonest, then governor Daniels ordered his staff to act to make sure that Zinn’s work is not being offered across schools in Indiana.  He wrote: “Can someone assure me that it is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of history?” Daniels’ order to his top state education officials comes across as an off-the-cuff directive directed at censoring Zinn. Unlike the deliberate engagement that is integral to academic evaluation, Daniels throws a number of serious charges at Zinn ...

Black, darkness Crime, violence Fear, Your imagination. You will mark me and sketch my existence to justify Your oppression. You will steal my hopes my dreams my labour my words my voice. You will come save me And pretend to be the righteous champion of human rights. Threat, you will say I am to your safety even as you Pull the trigger on my beating heart. Black, you will say in need of salvation anger riot violence. It is in your Whiteness that I will witness stories of war stories of theft stories of rape.