Mohan J. Dutta – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

CFP Theorizing Communication from the South

Call for Papers, Special Issue of Communication Theory: Theorizing Communication from the South. Guest Editors: Mohan J. Dutta, National U of Singapore, and Mahuya Pal, U of South Florida.

In this special issue, we take forward emerging calls for decolonizing communication to explore communication theories anchored in the cartographies of the Global South. We encourage submissions that question assumptions regarding internationalization, de-Westernization, and globalization, along with other key concepts, and that consider new directions for approaches to theorizing communication. Submissions should engage with questions concerning the production of knowledge, the role of communication in global relations, and the potential for communication to contribute to advancing imaginaries of the Global South.

The special issue will offer opportunities for theory construction that challenge the Eurocentric bases of communication theories, taking seriously scholars from and in the Global South. In doing so, we hope to foster new grounds for debate, conversation, and practice relevant to communication scholarship. While our emphasis is precisely on theorizing communicative imaginations from the South, scholars situated in the Global North engaged with the practical politics of centering theories from the Global South are also welcome.

The deadline for submission of full papers is 1 December 2017.

See submission guidelines, and submit. For queries regarding the Special Issue’s theme, please contact Mohan Dutta (cnmmohan AT nus.edu.sg) and Mahuya Pal (mpal AT usf.edu).

CFP Mobility, Mobile Media & Health in Asia

Call for Book Chapters
Mobility, Mobile Media, and Health in Asia: Culture, structure, agency
Editor: Mohan J. Dutta, Provost’s Chair Professor, Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore

Book Series: Mobile Communication in Asia: Local Insights, Global Implications
Series Editor: Sun Sun Lim, Associate Professor, Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore

In the proposed book, we examine the nature of mobility in mobile health, exploring the ways in which Asian mobilities configure into mobile media and health. The overarching framework of the book explores the intersections between mobile media and health, contextually situated in Asia and theoretically informed by Asia-centric conceptual maps for engaging with the linkages between mobile media and health. In one segment of the book, we examine mHealth projects across Asia, examining the overarching frameworks that constitute these projects, the underlying assumptions, the articulations of culture, and the expressions of agency as communities negotiate their access to and experiences with mHealth solutions. Drawing upon the overarching framework of the culture-centered approach, the book examines the flows of material, labor, and participation in mobile health interventions. Attention is paid to the ways in which mHealth interventions are conceptualized in community contexts, the role of these interventions in engaging with communities, and the constitution of community agency in mHealth interventions. In another segment of the book, we explore the ways in which health is constituted in Asia in the uses of mobile devices. Attention is paid to the vulnerabilities and risks to health constituted by mobile media, and the ways in which communities at the margins negotiate these health risks. The Chapters in this section will explore the health consequences of mobile media uses, and how mobile media products and artifacts are negotiated in the overarching context of health.

First, this edited book calls for scholarship across Asia that explores critically the interplays of power and control in mHealth interventions, addresses cultural context, and/or pays attention to the ways in which community agency is conceptualized in the ambits of mHealth Interventions. Based on the cases explored in the book, the overarching framework will examine Asia-centric concepts of health, culture, and technology as conceptualized in the ambits of mHealth Interventions. The book will provide an overarching structure for comparing mHealth cases across Asia, thus developing key theoretical anchors for exploring the linkages between mobility, culture, and structures as communities enact their agency in negotiating mHealth.

Second, the book calls for scholarship in Asia that explores the intersections of mobile media and health, and the juxtaposition of mobilities in/through mobile media in the backdrop of health outcomes. Chapters may explore the health outcomes attached to the manufacturing/ production/ disposal of mobile media, the health outcomes of mobile media uses, and the ways in which health risks/ vulnerabilities are negotiated through mobilities afforded by mobile media in Asia. Based on the conceptual anchors offered by Chapters covering Asia, this section of the book will offer comparative conceptual nodes for theorizing health, mobility, and mobile media located in Asia.

Call for abstracts:
Please submit abstracts outlining the paper. Papers submitted for the book may be theoretical pieces, empirically based pieces, or case studies comparing multiple cases. The important thing is that the Chapters be grounded in the context of Asia and seriously attend to the ways in which context configures in the theorizing of mobility, mobile media, and health. The abstract should spell out how the chapter contributes to the theorizing of mobility and health centered in Asia, drawing on culturally situated concepts that originate from and situate themselves in the Asian context. Abstracts should be no more than 1000 words long. Abstracts selected for submission will be invited to be developed into full papers (between 8000 and 10,000 words in length). Please submit abstracts to Mohan J. Dutta, cnmmohan[at]nus.edu.sg

Timeline:
Abstract Submission Deadline: October 30, 2016
Authors Notified: November 15, 2016
Chapters Due: April, 2017
Revisions Requested: May 2017
Final Versions Due: July 2017

Mohan J. Dutta Profile

Mohan J Dutta is Dean’s Chair Professor of Communication at Massey University (New Zealand), and Director of the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) directing research on culturally-centered, community-based projects of social change communication.

Professor Dutta teaches and conducts research in international health communication, critical cultural theories of health and social change, poverty and unequal health outcomes in the backdrop of neoliberal policies, health activism in globalization politics, indigenous cosmologies of health, subaltern studies and dialogue, and public policy and participatory social change communication. Currently, he serves as Editor of the “Critical Cultural Studies in Global Health Communication Book Series” with Routledge, Specialty Chief Editor of the Health Communication section of the open access journal, Frontiers in Communication, and sits on the editorial board of seven journals including Communication Theory, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, and Annals of the International Communication Association. Before arriving to NUS, he served as Associate Dean of Research & Graduate Education in the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University, a Service Learning Fellow, and a fellow of the Entrepreneurial Leadership Academy. Also at Purdue, he served as the Founding Director of the Center for Poverty and Health Inequities (COPHI), where he continues to hold an Affiliate appointment.

Professor Dutta holds a Bachelor of Technology (Honors) in Agricultural Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, and a PhD in Mass Communication from the University of Minnesota. He began his career at Purdue University in 2001, was tenured in 2005, and became Full Professor in 2009. In June, 2010, he was appointed as the Lim Chong Yah Professor of Communication and New Media at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and formally joined NUS as Professor of Communication in July, 2012.

Mohan Dutta’s research examines marginalization in contemporary healthcare, health care inequalities, the intersections of poverty and health experiences at the margins, political economy of global health policies, the mobilization of cultural tropes for the justification of neo-colonial health development projects, the meanings of health in the realms of marginalized experiences in highly underserved communities in the global South, and the ways in which participatory culture-centered processes and strategies are organized in marginalized contexts to bring about changes in neo-colonial structures of global oppression and exploitation. Engaging in dialogues with subaltern communities at the global margins in imagining alternative spaces that resist neoliberal formations forms the crux of Professor Dutta’s academic and activist projects. At the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE), Professor Dutta leads 19 culture-centered projects spread across 7 countries exploring the roles of listening, participation, and dialogue in creating infrastructures for alternative rationalities of health and wellbeing. These projects highlight the role of local cultural practices in transforming health, and in strengthening community-state relationships in securing community access to infrastructures of health and wellbeing. Ultimately, Professor Dutta hopes that this work offers an entry point for transformative communicative practices and networks of solidarity that connect the imaginaries of the global South in offering alternative structures of global organizing grounded in the spirits of justice, equality, and dignity.

Postdoc Nat U Singapore

Two-year Postdoctoral Research Fellow Positions 15 July 2012 (avail immediately) at National University of Singapore

The Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation is a project-driven center housed in the Department of Communication and New Media at the National University of Singapore that utilizes ethnographic and participatory action research methods in carrying out culturally-centered social change interventions in marginalized populations. The Center is global in scope with initial project emphases in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The goals of the Center are to (a) create a strategic research core for the social scientific study of health communication and social change issues in Asia (e.g. China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), (b) develop health communication interventions and policies that are culturally-centered and developed through the acknowledgement of the participatory capacity of local communities in creating culturally meaningful and locally responsive health solutions, (c) disseminate core principles and lessons learned from the culture-centered projects within Asia and across other sectors of the globe, and (d) build health communication research capacity in Asia by creating a training hub for the next generation of health communication theorists, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers across Asia.

The candidate is expected to be familiar with the culture-centered approach to research and evaluation, and is expected to have experience conducting field-based participatory research. Training will be provided on the use of the facilities in the university. The candidate should also have some experience working with ethnography, although on-the-job training will also be provided. Other skills include the ability to carrying out social change campaigns in disenfranchised populations. Proficiency in Bangla, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Malay, Philippine, or Mandarin will be an added plus point.

Requirements:
– PhD in the area of health communication, public health, medical anthropology, or medical sociology, with coursework in health communication and qualitative research methods.
– Experience in conducting in-depth interviews, focus groups, and/or ethnographies.

Terms and Conditions
The terms and conditions for the Postdoctoral Fellowship (PDF) are as follows:
1. Contract to be awarded beginning from July 2012 tenable for up to two years.
2. An Annual Base Salary of $48,000 per year.
3. An allowance of S$500 a month as contribution towards housing expenses for non-citizens (i.e. non-Singaporeans) and their spouses who do not own any property in Singapore and whose spouses are not in receipt of any form of housing benefits from their Singapore employers.
4. Singapore citizens and permanent residents are eligible for provident fund benefits.
5. Travel Assistance, payable once only, as follows.
* $2,000 for the Postdoctoral Fellow
* $2,000 for spouse
* $1,000 for each eligible child, subject to a maximum of 3 children. Children must be less than 18 years of age and receiving full-time education.
The above travel assistance is a contribution towards expenses incurred by the appointee and his/her dependants in re-locating to Singapore. Such expenses refer to costs for travel, packing, transportation and insurance of personal and professional effects as well as settling-in expenses.
The travel allowance is contingent upon the Postdoctoral Fellow’s completion of his/her initial two-years’ contract. In the event that the appointee does not fulfill the initial two-years’ contract, the appointee shall be liable to refund the University a proportionate amount of the travel assistance granted to him/her and his/her dependants on appointment.
6. Foreign PDFs who are granted Singapore Permanent Residence will continue to receive an allowance of S$500 a month as contribution towards housing expenses. The allowance will cease once they acquire Singapore citizenship.
7. Medical benefits in accordance with the Medical Benefit Plan.
8. Vacation leave of 28 days per calendar year.

Contact:
Interested candidates are invited to email a detailed resume, and copies of supporting documents and names and contact details of two academic referees to:
Dr Mohan J. Dutta, Director, Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation at culturecenteredapproach@gmail.com.

Res Asst Health Comm – Nat U Singapore

Research Assistants in Health Communication- 2 positions available immediately at National University of Singapore

The Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) is a project-driven center housed in the Department of Communication and New Media at the National University of Singapore that utilizes ethnographic and participatory action research methods in carrying out culturally-centered social change interventions in marginalized populations. The Center is global in scope with initial project emphases in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The goals of the Center are to (a) create a strategic research core for the social scientific study of health communication and social change issues in Asia (e.g. China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka), (b) develop health communication interventions and policies that are culturally-centered and developed through the acknowledgement of the participatory capacity of local communities in creating culturally meaningful and locally responsive health solutions, (c) disseminate core principles and lessons learned from the culture-centered projects within Asia and across other sectors of the globe, and (d) build health communication research capacity in Asia by creating a training hub for the next generation of health communication theorists, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers across Asia.

The candidate is expected to be familiar with the culture-centered approach to research and evaluation, and is expected to have experience conducting field-based participatory research. Training will be provided on the use of the facilities in the university. The candidate will mostly participate in field-based culture-centered projects, running interventions, as well as conducting evaluations through the use of participatory quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Other skills include the ability to carrying out social change campaigns in disenfranchised populations. Proficiency in Bangla, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Malay, Philippine, or Mandarin will be an added plus point.

Requirements:
– Bachelors or Masters in the area of health communication, public health, medical anthropology, or medical sociology, with coursework in health communication and qualitative research methods.

Terms and Conditions:
Salary and benefits will be commensurable to qualifications and working experience. Interested individuals can send their applications, academic transcripts, curriculum vitae and two reference letters to the email address below.

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