Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

I read with profound sadness the statement made by the NZ Chief Human Rights Commissioner Dr. Stephen Rainbow about "the increase in Muslim immigration as threat to Jewish community." The sentiment expressed in the statement reflects the Islamophobia being circulated across Far-Right platforms globally targeting Muslim communities. In the US for instance, the networked infrastructure of the Far-Right has continually produced the image of the terrorist Muslim threatening Western civilization to stoke up fear and hatred. The Trump administration has mainstreamed this Far-Right extremism in the form of Islamophobia scripted into policies that have been dressed up as addressing antisemitism. Consider the targeting of international students, particularly Muslim international students, and international students expressing solidarity with Palestine and speaking out against the genocide being carried out by Israel. Similarly in the UK, Far-Right groups such as the English Defense Le...

The global ascendance of far-right extremism has been mainstreamed through political parties and public policies. In Aotearoa, this far-right extremism takes the form of anti-Māori racism, seeking to undo the globally recognized hubs of academic excellence that have emerged from Māori struggles within academia, in community life, and in public spaces.  I will begin by noting that one of the distinguished features of scholarship generated from Aotearoa that is globally recognized for its scholarly and social impact is the scholarship on/of decolonization, that directly emerged from Kaupapa Māori theories and methods, from the transformative work of scholars such as Professors Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Graham Hingagaroa Smith, Mason Durie, Joanna Kidman, and Jacinta Ruru (I am only naming a few of our Māori colleagues from a stellar constellation of names with global impact and recognition). This formative scholarship has not only dismantled the hegemonic theories and methods of producing...

For a large cross-section of the Indian diaspora bred on caste privilege, colonial tropes of Indigenous communities on dole hold a great deal of appeal.  These colonial tropes are layered over a deep-seated anti-Indigenous attitude embedded in the ideological infrastructure of caste.  One needs to closely look at the historic and systemic abuse of Adivasi (Indigenous) communities in India to understand the threads of historic racism toward Indigenous communities that flows through the Indian diaspora.  The casteist underbelly of racism turns into hate and is often mobilized as violence. Consider the historic uses of sexual, physical and material violence by upper castes to hold power and control over Adivasis across India.  Consider similarly the number of incidences of caste atrocities directed toward Dalits and Adivasis reported in India and across the diaspora. It is no surprise therefore that one sees the preponderance of racist tropes of the "lazy Māori" an...

(Photo credit: Image taken from  Manaakitanga – more than just hospitality - March 2021 - OnMAS ) Manaakitanga, a core Māori value, invites us to consider the ways in which respect, kindness, and collective responsibility shape how we interact with others.  In the context of how universities engage with international students, manaakitanga invites us to consider carefully our commitments to offering security, safety, and kindness to the many international students that come to study with us. As I have been observing with horror the mistreatment of international students in the US, the targeting of international students, the deployment of visa processes to silence and harass them, and the uses of techniques of migration-related violence to create a chilling climate, I am struck by how quickly universities in the US, many of them elite universities, have abandoned international students. As an American Indian who has benefitted from the scholarships and support infrastructures ...

The organized and accelerated forms of attack on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) across the far-right political architectures of the U.S. and radiating from the U.S. to global spaces where white supremacy has historically reigned, reflect white backlash.  White backlash, or backlash from historic and entrenched structures of white supremacy, is specifically crafted by white supremacists to silence and erase diverse voices of resistance witnessing the violence and hypocrisies of white supremacy.  White backlash is specifically designed to threaten and erase diverse voices from the margins that have been produced by white supremacy.  It is directed at the plural registers of excellence that are being built locally and globally by Indigenous, Black, and people of color communities rendering visible the workings of white terror and white violence.   Trace here the emergence of the anti-DEI disinformation and hate infrastructure as a reflection of the whit...

Muslim celebrations of Ramadan Writing this blog post on this first day of March 2025, I feel joyful about the openings for renewal and hope this time brings.  This year, the colorful Hindu festival of Holi crisscrosses Muslim celebrations of Ramadan.  Anticolonial syncretism Growing up in Bengal in the 1980s, in the cosmopolitan town of Kharagpur, in a family that traversed interfaith spaces in our everyday lives and relationships, both these festivals reflected invitations to love across difference, to connect, and to explore possibilities of mutuality.  Hindu celebrations of Holi This anchor to mutuality formed the heart of a decolonizing politics in the South Asian subcontinent, actively creating a register that resisted the colonizing whiteness of divide and rule strategies.  Against these violent strategies of manipulation created by the British through the careful study of colonized societies, anticolonial resistance sutured spaces of dialogue and building bri...

Disrupting and Consolidating Communication Research: Applying Communication Theory to Practice June 12-June 16, 2025 Massey University, Palmerston North, Aotearoa New Zealand Oceania Hub: Aotearoa New Zealand Hosted by Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) Communication and Media Studies at Massey University Organizers: Debalina Dutta, Sy Taffel, Sean Phelan, & Mohan Dutta Call for Submissions Due Date: March 7, 2025, 11:59 pm NZST The Oceania Hub of the International Communication Association (ICA) 2025 conference, hosted at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand, explores questions surrounding disrupting Communication Research through the lens of Te Tiriti and Social Justice . Drawing on communication scholarship organized around the various registers of social justice, the Hub examines the intersections of communication theorizing and practice, mobilized toward disruptions and consolidation. The hub will be held in hybr...