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The award is sponsored by the Washington DC-based National Communication Association and named after a former professor of speech communications at Penn State University. It honours scholars responsible for authoring “bodies of published research and creative scholarship in applied communication”.
There could surely be no more richly deserving recipient than Prof Dutta, whose official title is Dean’s Chair Professor of Communication and Director of the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) at Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa Massey University.
Followers of this blog, being familiar with Prof Dutta’s winningly pellucid and succinct rhetoric, will agree that he boldly cuts through the dense, obfuscatory jargon that characterises most scholarly discourse and has a set a standard for all other academics to aspire to.
Doubtless the poor, the oppressed and the marginalised, whose cause Prof Dutta tirelessly champions, will rejoice at this tribute and will be there in spirit with him at Saturday’s award ceremony in the exclusive waterfront resort of National Harbor, Maryland. The freedom fighters of Hamas will presumably be delighted too, having recently been applauded by Dutta for their "powerful exemplar of decolonising resistance".
The latest award is only the latest of many showered on him. We should all take vicarious pride in the fact that this humble scholar from a New Zealand university with lowly agrarian origins is feted on the global mortarboard circuit – a fact attested to by a recent lecture he delivered at Colorado State University, entitled “Decolonisation as organising radical democracies: Centering health, resisting climate colonialism, securing food systems, and resisting hate”.
It’s not surprising that Massey acknowledges Prof Dutta’s international standing by publicising his many achievements on its website. It is surely entitled to bathe in his reflected glory.
In my misguided past I have written on this website that “award-winning” are the two most meaningless words in the English language. In the light of this latest announcement I now realise that was mean-spirited and churlish, and accordingly apologise for my misjudgement.
22 comments:
I received a request for a donation from the Massey Alumni Foundation. I wrote back saying that university providing a platform for Dutta to spread racism and hatred made me embarrassed to be an alum and the only course of action available to me to express my disappointment at how Massey was no longer the tolerant university it once was to withhold financial contributions.
I like both your sarcasm, and your "two most meaningless words" being "award-winning".
It reminded me Stephen Fry's definition of the two most dangerous words in the English language, they being "Health & Safety".
Hilarious. Tragic. Illustrates everything wrong with academia.
When I came upon this blogpost I thought the photo was of Kiri Allan - the ex-Labour politician of car crash fame and delayed court appearances. Am I insulting both Dutta and Allan in one sentence?
Another well written and entertaining masterclass in satire and sarcasm from Karl.
The global mortarboard circuit of moderated thinking is indeed widely fetid...woops feted, so easy to confuse !
Love this, dripping with sarcasm.
I am incredulous. How on earth can this strange, damaged man get an award in communications or for that matter have a job at a NZ university? I’ve attempted to read some of his papers. It’s not possible to work out what he’s trying to say, apart from some sort of message that white people and all they do are bad. Why he’s permitted to stay here escapes me. Why Massey employs him is unclear, unless it has a death wish.
We've all known that these awards and 'honours' are meaningless mutual congratulations within small groups of academics and of no prestige at all to the rest of us. Embarrassing really.
Prof Mohan Dutta of the World Economic Forum:
https://www.weforum.org/people/mohan-jyoti-dutta/
New Zealand universities are distinctly D grade these days. They need to be reduced in number. Why should the taxpayer be forced to support this kind of academic onanism? I am today also deeply ashamed of Victoria University from which I graduated in 1975. While Dutta is feted by Massey, Dr James Kierstaad, an eminent classicist and public defender of free speech, has been made redundant as Victoria expunges any remaining links with Western Civilization. What a squalid excuse for a place of learning.
I'm shocked to hear that about James. He's a courageous academic who has stood firm against the tide of wokeism sweeping through academia - which may, of course, explain why he's been shown the door. If James has been made to pay the price for failing to toe the ideological line, then things are even worse than we thought and academic credibility (to say nothing of academic freedom) has been nullified.
Karl - your sarcasm is supreme. I wonder whether Dutta possesses sufficient intellect even to comprehend it is satire!
Your post here is incredibly well timed - these very days when National, ACT and New Zealand First are quietly getting to agree on a stable government for the next 3 years. I understand that both NZ First and ACT are happy about their "bottom lines".
If that is the case, Dutta will very soon find himself sidelined in his insistence that "the far Right" is organising an attack on communication and media studies pedagogy" - and that "the far Right thrives on hate".
I have a lot of respect, a lot of optimistic hope, of New Zealand and of her democracy. There will be no end of howls of protests from Dutta and his ilk - and from Militant Maori (those despicable, tattooed, tongue-wagging, primitive monsters). But I feel certain our new government will succeed.
It was very fortunate New Zealand First became the king-maker.
I fear that your sarcasm/irony may well be lost on Mr Dutta and this article will be quoted in future publications as evidence of your Damascene conversion. I
I'm not quite speechless. Two phrases appeared in my mind as I read your article, Karl:
Jesus wept.
And that wonderful expression from 1990s Usenet: ROTFL.
A sideline to this thread but relevant is the new democracy emerging in Kapiti.
The council sought feedback on Maori wards. It was strongly opposed.
However, the mayor and a majority of the council decided that ''young Maori'' favoured it, so the feedback was unfair and slanted. Maori wards will be.
No point in the farce of feedback; no point in voting at all.
Do most councillors really believe in what they are doing or just going with the flow to avoid abuse and harrasment ?
Godfery Morgan, a newly emerging young academic-activist champion of the ethno-utopia at the Ministry of Stuff (and The Guardian too) says we will have hihoi from hell led by TMP on all and sundry
Karl, do you know how much this award costs and where I can apply?
Hahahahahahahahahaha!
Yes, when reading the obscure nonsense this Dutta chap writes, it does neither the NCA nor Massey any credit. One can only wonder what Phillips would think of the recipient of his/her Award? If Dutta is an outstanding example of 'Distinguished Applied Communication', heaven help us and those that he teaches or has any influence over.
Thanks for the entertaining response Karl, and the links only confirm the warped mind of this individual.
And, Paul Peters, same farce and anti-democratic, woke ideology about to be unleashed in Lower Hutt on this coming 21st.
Dutta deserves full credit (i.e. a dunce's hat) for his ability to mangle the English language and produce publications and comments which are completely undecipherable to normal human beings.
His gibberish ramblings would have been ideal in Bob Jones excellent satire novel- "Degrees for Everyone"
I like the new photo of Prof. Dutta in his comfy V-neck.
Reminds me of 'the look' made popular many moons ago by Andy Williams.
Nick,
I noticed that too and wondered whether Prof Dutta had raided the wardrobe of the late Val Doonican.
I'm relieved to see that you did have your tongue firmly in your cheek - for a nasty moment I feared you had recanted your earlier assessment of the professor. I suspect that he may indeed frame this as an illustration of your Damascene conversion. Like Ben I do not believe he will understand the satirical intent - Critical Theory adherents do not seem to have any self-awareness let alone a sense of humour.
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