The Department of English organized a special lecture on Environmental Humanities for the Second semester students of the Postgraduate course, on June 5, 2023 at 11:30 am in the college premises. The special lecture entitled “Environmental Humanities: Resituating the Literary in Times of Precarity” was delivered by Prof. (Dr.) Arpita Chattaraj Mukhopadhyay of the Department of English and Culture Studies, The University of Burdwan. The lecture had the objective of providing students with a background knowledge on environmental humanities, an emerging area of interdisciplinary studies that links humanities to sustainable development and a plethora of environmental concerns.
Dr. Chattaraj Mukhopadhyay started the lecture by defining environmental humanities as a discipline that emphasized the inextricability of environment and humanities. Environmental Humanities as a discipline is predicated on the transgression of multiple disciplinary borders and the transcendence of the bifurcations inherent in Western Literary theory. The definition also referred to the possibility of treating literature from an ethical perspective. At the very onset, the lecture raised a concern with the overwhelming planetary crisis facing all humanity due to industrialization and urbanization. In this context it traced the importance of literature in addressing these concerns through a literary representation of the world. Literature was then redefined as a participatory archive that uses narratives to embody lived experiences, imaginings and that often seeks to project anticipated events. From the viewpoint of environmental humanities, one of the fundamental questions raised by literature is centered upon the definition of what constitutes the definition and the situatedness of the ‘human’. The lecture traced the ways in which earth history, world history, human history and natural history are intertwined. It referred to Dipesh Chakravarty’s concept of the ‘Anthropocene’ and the great ontological collapse between natural and human histories. Chakravarty’s segregation of the terms ‘human-human’ and non-human human’ were elaborated with special emphasis on the self-reflexivity that accompanies the idea of the human, as opposed to the definition of the ‘non-human’. This was explained in terms of the historical example of the Permanent Settlement in Bengal as a means of exerting the colonial masters’ right to water and land. The concluding sections of the lecture addressed the various ways in which literature made readers critically aware of human self-reflexivity and at the same time, considered the futility of this awareness. It drew upon the example of Margaret Atwood’s story “Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet” to illustrate this. The lecture concluded with an optimistic emphasis on the capability of literature to save the planet by quoting the popular song “Gaon Chor ap Nahi” sung by Bhagwan Majhi. The lecture was received with immense enthusiasm by the students of the Postgraduate Department followed by a Q/A session.
On June 20th, 2024, The Bhawanipur Education Society College (BESC) was abuzz with excitement as it hosted its highly anticipated Intra-College Volleyball Tournament. The event which began at 9 A.M. and stretched until 7:30 P.M. showcased the prowess of male and female volleyball enthusiasts from the college. The tournament, held on the college turf, featured …
“In the carnival of life, let enjoyment be your guide, and happiness be your constant companion on the journey.” On the 25th and 26th of February 2025, The Bhawanipur Education Society College revived an event that has been a crowd-pleaser since its initial release. Carnival 2025, organised and hosted by The BESC in its Turf …
NSS unit of The Bhawanipur Education Society College has been working tirelessly along with NGO Nirman Foundation toward spreading awareness in Health, Hygiene, Sanitation, and Safe Water . This time we had chosen Sarangabad High School located at Budge Budge, South 24 Parganas for the above objective.
Education is a powerful tool that has the potential to break the cycle of poverty and open doors to a brighter future. However, many underprivileged schools face significant challenges, including a lack of basic resources such as stationery items. The Extension & Outreach Committee of Department of Commerce (Afternoon & Evening Section) organised a Distribution …
Special Lecture on Environmental Humanities organized for the Postgraduate Students of the Department of English
The Department of English organized a special lecture on Environmental Humanities for the Second semester students of the Postgraduate course, on June 5, 2023 at 11:30 am in the college premises. The special lecture entitled “Environmental Humanities: Resituating the Literary in Times of Precarity” was delivered by Prof. (Dr.) Arpita Chattaraj Mukhopadhyay of the Department of English and Culture Studies, The University of Burdwan. The lecture had the objective of providing students with a background knowledge on environmental humanities, an emerging area of interdisciplinary studies that links humanities to sustainable development and a plethora of environmental concerns.
Dr. Chattaraj Mukhopadhyay started the lecture by defining environmental humanities as a discipline that emphasized the inextricability of environment and humanities. Environmental Humanities as a discipline is predicated on the transgression of multiple disciplinary borders and the transcendence of the bifurcations inherent in Western Literary theory. The definition also referred to the possibility of treating literature from an ethical perspective. At the very onset, the lecture raised a concern with the overwhelming planetary crisis facing all humanity due to industrialization and urbanization. In this context it traced the importance of literature in addressing these concerns through a literary representation of the world. Literature was then redefined as a participatory archive that uses narratives to embody lived experiences, imaginings and that often seeks to project anticipated events. From the viewpoint of environmental humanities, one of the fundamental questions raised by literature is centered upon the definition of what constitutes the definition and the situatedness of the ‘human’. The lecture traced the ways in which earth history, world history, human history and natural history are intertwined. It referred to Dipesh Chakravarty’s concept of the ‘Anthropocene’ and the great ontological collapse between natural and human histories. Chakravarty’s segregation of the terms ‘human-human’ and non-human human’ were elaborated with special emphasis on the self-reflexivity that accompanies the idea of the human, as opposed to the definition of the ‘non-human’. This was explained in terms of the historical example of the Permanent Settlement in Bengal as a means of exerting the colonial masters’ right to water and land. The concluding sections of the lecture addressed the various ways in which literature made readers critically aware of human self-reflexivity and at the same time, considered the futility of this awareness. It drew upon the example of Margaret Atwood’s story “Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet” to illustrate this. The lecture concluded with an optimistic emphasis on the capability of literature to save the planet by quoting the popular song “Gaon Chor ap Nahi” sung by Bhagwan Majhi. The lecture was received with immense enthusiasm by the students of the Postgraduate Department followed by a Q/A session.
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On June 20th, 2024, The Bhawanipur Education Society College (BESC) was abuzz with excitement as it hosted its highly anticipated Intra-College Volleyball Tournament. The event which began at 9 A.M. and stretched until 7:30 P.M. showcased the prowess of male and female volleyball enthusiasts from the college. The tournament, held on the college turf, featured …
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