K.S. Sitaram, an early interculturalist: Founding the field May 6, 1970

This essay provides a retrospective of the leadership and academic contributions of K.S. Sitaram (1935–2009) with an emphasis on his early work career in India and his 1969 doctoral dissertation on Indian radio; his early influence in the development of the study of intercultural communication and his coauthored 1976 text, Foundations of Intercultural Communication with its stress on Asian communication; his further development of an understanding of Asian communication, particularly through Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam in his 1995 text, Communication and Culture: A World View; his co-chairmanship of the 1995–2001 Rochester Intercultural Conferences and co-editorship of the 1998 Civic Discourse: Multiculturalism, Cultural Diversity, and Global Communication and 1999 Civic Discourse: Intercultural, International, and Global Media; and a summary of his professional contributions.

► K.S. Sitaram proposed as Division 5 for ICA, Intercultural and Developmental Communication, on May 6, 1970.
► Sitaram's books included: Co-author, Foundations of Intercultural Communication (1976); Author, Communication and Culture: A World View (1995); coeditor, Civil Discourse: Multiculturalism, Cultural Diversity, and Global Communication (1998); and coeditor, Civic Discourse: intercultural, International, and Global Media (1999).
► Sitaram was cochair of the six Rochester Intercultural Conferences (1995–2001), and was the keynoter for the first conference, “Intercultural Communication: The Last Twenty-Five Years and the Next.”
► Sitaram was a strong advocate for intercultural communication as a means toward international peace.