Peer Seminar on “The Quintessential Busybody: A Constant in every Whodunit”

Name of the Activity: Peer Seminar on “The Quintessential  Busybody: A Constant in every Whodunit”

Type of Activity: Peer  Seminar

Date/ Duration of Activity: (from-to): 22.06.2024

Time: 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm

Details of Resource person: Prof. Ananyya Banerjee (Associate Professor, Dept. of English)

No. of Participants: 18

Objective of the event:

The Peer Seminar is a departmental activity initiated by the Department of English where each month, a member of the faculty presents their research papers in front of the other teachers of the Department. This has been instituted as an attempt to encourage academic dialogue and widen research perspectives amongst the faculty.  Peer seminar continues to be a unique endeavour by the Department of English in order to encourage a promising atmosphere for research and the exchange of scholarly ideas. It serves to enrich faculty members and students alike through the facilitation of critical thinking and dialogue.

Brief description of the event:

The Department of English, The Bhawanipur Education Society College organised Peer Seminar: Chapter 9 on 22^nd June, 2024 at 2:00 pm. The speaker was Prof. Ananyya Banerjee; her paper was entitled “The Quintessential  Busybody: A Constant in every Whodunit”.The seminar was held in Room 129 C from 2:00 pm; it was attended by faculty members, PG semester III students along with a few UG semester V students of the Department of English.  The paper focused on the role of the Busybody in detective fiction where the private detective is identified as the Busybody. Prof. Banerjee took the audience down the memory lane where amateur detectives in Enid Blyton books were an essential part of a child’s reading list. Concentrating on the Golden age of the Whodunnits, Prof. Banerjee, commented on the rise of the detective in literary fiction and how they served as an essential part of contemporary society.

Outcome of the event:

The session elicited a plethora of discussions on detective fiction and the popular detective characters from the nineteenth century to the present day. It was attended by not only the PG students but also a few UG students of the department who engaged in a stimulating discussion with Prof. Ananyya Banerjee during the Q&A session. Peer Seminar has brought about an amiable climate of research in the department, initiating a much-needed dialogue between faculty and students regarding possible areas of research, both subject-specific and interdisciplinary.