Naren Chitty: A Wide Spectrum of Achievements Worldwide – By Michael Roberts
Source : thuppahis
From An Article entitled “Professor Emeritus Naren Chitty: A Career winds up” … with underlining emphasis imposed by The Editor, Thuppahi
Professor Emeritus Naren Chitty’s responsibilities at Macquarie University came to an end on May 30, 2025, after thirty-six years. He had continued for six years, post-retirement, to direct the Soft Power Analysis and Resource Centre (SPARC) that he founded in 2010. …
Naren with Castro …. and with Ronald Reagan
SPARC, inaugurated by Harvard Professor Emeritus Joseph Nye, was one of many institutions and programs established by Professor Chitty after joining Macquarie University in 1989. These include Australia’s first Master of Arts in International Communication program, The Journal of International Communication, the Department of International Communication, and the International Graduate Conference (IGC). Chinese University of Communication, Chulalongkorn University, Macquarie University, Tsinghua University, and Université Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle) were IGC partners. He attracted $1,100,000 in grants for SPARC.
Professor Chitty was recognized in 2009 “for services to education, particularly in the field of international communications as a researcher and academic and to a range of professional associations” through investiture as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). He served as Secretary General of the International Association for Media and Communication Research from 1996 until 2000 – the first Sri Lankan Australian – and Australian of any origin – to do so.
Professor Chitty’s research in the past dozen years has been on soft power. Products include a theory developed in the chapter entitled “An experiential theory of attraction-based influence (unintended and intended),” in the Routledge Handbook of Soft Power, 2nd edition. The Handbook was co-edited by him. He was principal supervisor of over three dozen successful doctoral candidates; and was Visiting Professor at Université Paris III -Sorbonne Nouvelle, Jilin University, and several other universities.
Prior to joining Macquarie University, Professor Chitty served at Sri Lanka’s Washington DC embassy as Counsellor, for six of the eight years of the Reagan Administration. The US was promoting free trade zones around the world at the time. The Embassy being a small one he wore several hats – promoting investment, tourism, education and media relations; and representing Sri Lanka at the Assemblies of Parties and Meetings of Signatories of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation (INTELSAT). He negotiated a USIA-funded link between the School of International Service at the American University (AU) and the then infant Department of International Relations at the University of Colombo. He also negotiated a donation of Kaypros to the Arthur Clarke Centre (ACC) at University of Colombo following which international digital networking was initiated. His article “Third world entry into the electronic age”, about the ACC, published in Telematics and Informatics (1984) was read into Hansard by then prime minister Ranasinghe Premadasa.
A highlight of this period was his meeting, along with his wife Ismene, with President Ronald Reagan, in the White House, after an evening of entertainment in the East Room by Frank Sinatra. He was in Sri Lankan delegations to Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings (CHOGMs) in Nassau, The Bahamas (with a side trip to Havana where he met Fidel Castro); and in Vancouver, Canada. He had the idea of an Arthur Clarke Foundation and invited Arthur Clarke’s friends in Washington DC to a planning meeting at the Sri Lankan Embassy (chancery). This foundation has given out awards to distinguished personalities such as Jeffrey Bezos, Freeman Dyson, Stephen Hawking and Michio Kaku – a butterfly effect that continues to amaze him. He also established a tax-exempt fund-raising society supporting the Cultural Triangle of Sri Lanka in USA.
Prior to his Washington DC posting, he was Consultant to the Ministry of State, a director of ITN and co-director of the National Television Planning Centre. He took care of legislative aspects of the introduction of national TV. He was also on the team that set up the Arthur C. Clarke Centre for Modern Technologies at the University of Moratuwa, where Arthur Clarke was Chancellor.
Professor Chitty completed his graduate and undergraduate education at the American University (Washington DC) and the University of Westminster (London) respectively. His secondary education was at Trinity College Kandy and primary education mostly at Royal Primary School. He is a son of the late Captain S. A. Chitty, Managing Director of Lewis Brown Ltd and Doris Chitty.
Professor Chitty proposes to spend more time on painting in oils in the future, in addition to continuing with research and publication.
