Transcultural Field Notes

Abstract

This paper is a response to the white supremacist attack in Aotearoa, New Zealand, which was based on an obscenely flawed misunderstanding of Aotearoa’s history, and is linked to a global trend of violent online white supremacist groups. Such groups and their violent acts are extremist articulations of the mainstream discourse surrounding immigration and race, as seen in populist political campaigns, as well as in academic and popular works. This hateful and fear driven rhetoric, I argue, must be addressed by the academy. This paper is thus intended as a call for greater outreach from Transcultural Studies, as the findings of Transcultural Studies are powerful antidotes to the resurgence of xenophobic misinformation and propaganda. Finally, this paper outlines the new student led group, Heidelberg Talks, which aims to apply the methods of Transcultural Studies in order to create a facilitated space in which to address such misinformation before it can be manipulated by hate-fuelled interest groups.