UG students Seminar on Memoirs and Autobiographies

The Department of English of The Bhawanipur Education Society College organized a thought-provoking fifth installment of the UG Students’ Seminar on the 4th of May, 2024. The event was coordinated by Prof Neetisha Jha and Prof Chitrangada Deb. A CFP (Call for Papers) was circulated back on the 28th of March, encouraging students from UG Sem IV and VI to submit research oriented abstracts on “Memoirs and Autobiographies”, and its subsequent sub-themes. An Orientation Lecture on the same topic was delivered by Dr. Gargi Talapatra of the Department of English, on 6th April, 2024. Consequently, the selected participants were encouraged to conduct research and submit their papers to the coordinators.

The Students’ Seminar on “Memoirs and Autobiographies” was organized on the fourth of May, 2024, in the Concept Hall from 10 am to 5 pm. The poster for the programme was designed by Prof Soumyajit Chandra. The event was initiated by an introductory speech delivered by Ms. Chitrangada Deb, following which the panel of judges- Dr Gargi Talapatra, Prof Sonal Kapur and Dr Jashomati Ghose were felicitated. Dr. Gargi Talapatra delivered the welcome note. The Seminar was divided into 4 Sessions, with 29 participants. The papers presented ranged on a variety of topics, from analyses of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar or Helen Keller’s autobiography, all the way to the representation of poverty through the eyes of Charlie Chaplin, or the “Hiatus” of the ex-boy band, One Direction. The participants were asked questions after each session concluded, and the winners of both the semesters were announced separately:

• Tessa Baksi (1st); Anushree Chakraborty, Ashmita Das and Mitaadru Dutta (2nd); along with Rajshree Pathak and Shrijan Dasgupta (3rd) from Sem IV; and
• Adiptya Mukherjee, Geeti Maity and Swagata Mukherjee (1st); Sk. Md. Zaheeruddin (2nd); along with Rishav Nayak and Ujjwal Karamchandani (3rd) from Sem VI.

The Seminar concluded after the Prize Distribution Ceremony, followed by the Vote of Thanks delivered by Prof Neetisha Jha.