ORIENTALISM OUTREACH PROGRAMME

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES
UNIVERSITY OF HYDERABAD
OUTREACH PROGRAMME

Seventh Short term course from 2nd to 6th February 2009

Theme : “ORIENTALISM”

Instructor : Dr. Pramod K Nayar
Department of English
University of Hyderabad

Venue : SAP Seminar Hall of the Department

Time : 4.30 P.M. – 6.30 P.M.

All those who are interested can register for the course in the office of the Department of Philosophy or through E-mail

For further details contact
Dr. Abhijeet Joshi 23123500/ 23133512
(during Office hours)
&
Out reach.php.@gmail.com
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In response to the request made by many Students and faculty members of the various Departments, the Department of Philosophy has launched on OUTREACH PROGRAMME in for the form of short term courses in PHILOSOPHY which run for five days in the evenings. The aim of this undertaking is to popularize Philosophy as a discipline that can broaden our intellectual horizons and equip us to appreciate and grapple with the Fundamental questions. The purpose of this venture is to inculcate a Philosophical bent of mind by encouraging critical thinking on some of the issues that are theoretically challenging and practically significant.

The themes will be handled in a manner that makes philosophy accessible to all. The sessions leave a lot of room for debate and discussions.

The Department extends warm welcome to all those who wish to participate in these courses and thus contribute to the success of this venture. Interested Participants may contact.

Dr. Abhijeet Joshi, Department of Philosophy, University of Hyderabad.
Call : 040-23133500/ 23133512 (during office hours)
E.mail : outreach.php@gmail.com

The participants may register their names for the course in the office of the Department of Philosophy during office hours.
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more detail: http://www.uohyd.ernet.in/

Ninth CLAI Biennial International Conference

'The Ninth CLAI Biennial International Conference jointly organized by UoH and EFLU will be inaugurated on 28th January 2009 at 9:30 am in the DST Auditorium on the UoH campus. The Chief Guest will be Prof. S S Noor, Vice President of Sahitya Akademi.'

Upcoming Conference

The Third International Conference on

Multicultural Discourses

Hangzhou, China, 27-29 August 2010

Organized by the Institute of Discourse & Cultural Studies

and co-sponsored by Centre for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies

Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

Call for papers

Following the great success of the first two tri-annual International Conference on Multicultural Discourses in 2004 and 2007, respectively, the Third will be held between August 27 and 29, 2010, again in Hangzhou! The organiser is the Institute of Discourse & Cultural Studies of Zhejiang University and the co-sponsor the University’s Centre for Contemporary Chinese Discourse Studies.

The coming Conference on Multicultural Discourses will remain committed to the original broad aims: 1) to enhance critique of cultural imperialism in scholarly discourse, 2) to promote cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue in discourse studies, 3) to advance research into culturally repressive discourses, culturally marginalized discourses and new discourses helpful to cultural coexistence, solidarity and prosperity. The particular areas of study include but are not limited by:

l cultural critique of dominant language/communication/discourse scholarships;

l studies of concepts, theories and methods of language/communication/discourse outside mainstream traditions;

l intercultural dialogue and cross-fertilization in discourse/language/communication scholarships

l studies of discourses that reflect the realities, issues, concerns and aspirations of marginalized or otherwise troubled groups and communities;

l studies of new or alternative discourses of cultural cohesion and progress;

l discussion of the needs and norms for conducting intercultural and international communication

get more information from http://shixu.com/institute-conference/

Fellowship

The JN Tata Scholarship 2009-10
http://www.uohyd.ernet.in/admin/uploads/news/JNTata_scholarship.pdf
University of Hyderabad – Department of Biotechnology (UoH-DBT Centre for Education and Research in Biology and Biotechnology (CREBB) DB Postdoctoral Fellowships
http://www.uohyd.ernet.in/admin/uploads/news/CREBB.pdf

XI Convocation of the University be held on today

'The XI Convocation of the University of Hyderabad will be held on 17th January 2009 (TODAY) at 11:30 am in the DST Auditorium on the University Campus. Shri Arjun Singh, Hon'ble Union Minister for HRD will be the Chief Guest and deliver the Convocation Address.' Among many successful candidates we also have a bright young Mizo Scholars to recieve the degree in different stream.

Up Coming Conference

NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT March 24-25, 2009
For more information and brochure log on to http://www.mzu.edu.in/
It might take time to download the brochure

Upcoming Seminar on "Emerging Literature from North East India", Aizawl, Mizoram

Source: Indian Institute of advance study, http://www.iias.org/index.html

THE DYNAMICS OF CULTURE, SOCIETY AND IDENTITY: EMERGING LITERATURES FROM NORTH EAST INDIA

Culture is a dynamic process that goes through mutations and underwrites changes in time while some historic turning points in the life of a community becomes the defining moment for that community in terms of identity and articulation. Culture as a hold all word also operates within an epistemological horizon in that cultural reproduction is intimately connected to its transmission and transformation. In an era when we go on debating the merits and demerits of globalization from an economic stand point we often ignore what happens to fragile marginal identities and the way a society articulates its inner conflicts, ambivalences, passions, through the written word. Creative literature has always expressed not only the discursive struggle of an individual but also struggles of many kinds of the community as a whole. Creative literature is an indicator of a society’s understanding of itself, human ecology, various ‘life forms’ and the larger world around it. It engenders itself through constant engagement with the changes while accepting what is universal, defining and redefining what is specific and particular.

Northeast India has always been in mainstream consciousness mostly for the wrong reasons, its understanding mostly created through, and derived from the media. There is a Northeast outside of the newspaper pages; it is something different to people who live here. The land mass that is designated as India’s Northeast is not the same to the people who inhabit this geographical area that has existed for centuries through its ecology, myths, legends, stories, poetry, dances, arts and crafts, its conflicting history and moribund politics. This territory has many facets and many faces; it is not just a map; it is a cultural and linguistic geography—diverse, vibrant and variegated. The people who call this territory their home define the uniqueness and diversity of their cultures, customs and social practices through their oral and written literatures. Some of the communities in the Northeast are still embattled being caught up in a never ending conflict between the Indian State and ethnocentric autonomy movements. The fluid political situation is a carry over of the colonial past. The colonial past has shaped and reshaped the cultural identities of most communities (mostly tribal communities) in Northeast while Christianity has added another dimension to cultural loss and recovery. The historical is always the political in that different articulations have captured the complexity of life in Northeast. What is edifying in the face of the fragile and fluid political situation is the emerging literatures that seek and articulate the wholeness of life in the face of disintegration and fragmentation. The act of creativity in its self-knowledge and dynamics seeks to affiliate and connect the individual to the society holding together the home and the world.

The emerging literatures from Northeast, particularly from communities which were mostly oral cultures till recently and have undergone historical and political trauma, have registered their unique voices that needs to be heard and understood in the context of India’s pluri- cultural mosaic. These emerging voices bring in a freshness to the literary repertoire of the country not because these literatures are historically young but because the way they depict the experience of their communities, the unique linguistic registers they use and the vision they project for the future in an endeavour to preserve their cultural and ethnic identities. For all these reasons and many more these literatures mark a difference that is not borne out of a blind nostalgia for a lost world but resonate through the voices of the individual authors from societies fraught with many a personal tragedy, trauma and cultural ambivalence in developing a literary consciousness that needs to be recognized and interrogated.

As literature occupies a third space beyond politics and history, it needs to be discussed and interrogated for having a clear understanding of the aspirations of the people of Northeast India. The proposed seminar therefore would broadly focus on (a) Northeast as cultural geography and its diversities; (b) the problematics of ethnicity and identity placing them in the terrains of politics of culture and identity; (c) the emerging literatures which have come to existence after the textualisation of tribal societies mostly in the wake of Christianity while mapping the transition from oral to the written and (d) finally, the interpretation of emerging literatures from NE for an understanding of their cultural nuances. (e)other writings / literatures emerging across India over caste-tribe paradigm to provide a wider spectrum to the seminar’s main theme.


Sub Themes

1. Colonialism, Ethnography and Societies in NE India
2. Christianity and Textualisation of cultures
3. The transition: From Oral to Written
4. The Emerging Voices:
(a) Northeast poetry
(b) Short Story from NE
(c) Fiction and NE societies
5. Interpreting Emerging Literatures:
(a) Ambivalence
(b) Cultural loss and recovery
(c) Trauma
(d) Linguistic Register and literary articulation
(e) Sameness and Difference
(f) Institutional legitimacy and politics of linguistic identity
(g) Politics of culture, Identity and globalization
(h) Ethnic politics and regionalism
6. Translation: Translating cultures
7. Emerging writings / literatures across India over caste-tribe paradigm

As the Seminar is interdisciplinary, scholars across disciplines are invited to make their presentation at the seminar. Each participant will get 20 minutes presentation time and 5 minutes will be devoted to discussion. Each session will start with a plenary lecture (if possible) that will give direction to the discussions.

Place: I & PR Conference Hall, Treasury Square, Aizawl, Mizoram.
Time : 10 & 11 March 2009

Last date for submission of seminar abstract: 10thth February 2009
Last date for submission of complete papers: 2nd March 2009

Weather will be pleasant but light sweaters / jackets will be required

How to reach Aizawl: Air link from Kolkata, Imphal and Gauhati by Indian Airlines / Air Deccan ; Road link from Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur via Silchar by Bus and Sumo.

Address of Contact Persons :

Convener :
Prof.Margaret Ch Zama
Head, Department of English
Mizoram University, Aizawl
Pin -796 009
Phone Nos. (0389) 2330631 / 233705 (Fax)
Mobile Nos. 9436142413
Email : margaretzama@yahoo.com

Dr. Margaret L. Pachuau
Department of English
Mizoram University, Aizawl
Pin -796 009
Mobile Nos. 9436141232
Email : maggielpachuau@gmail.com