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.
Placement Hall, 27th July, 2018. Dr Divyesh Shas, the moving spirit behind the NSS movement sending in its roots in the BESC campus inducted the new students who have opted to join the collective. Dr Shah began by explaining that the National Service Scheme (NSS) is an Indian Government sponsored public service program conducted under …
an industrial visit was organized to East India Pharmaceutical Works Limited, Sarsuna, Kolkata for the students of BBA, Besc by the Director General, Dr. Suman Mukherjee. A team of 40 students were led by Prof. Jayjit Chakraborty along with seven other faculty members of the department. The students were taken to the site by college, …
The Dean’s office witnessed a discussion of another sort when about twenty students spoke their hearts out, gently goaded by Professor Dilip Shah, the Dean of student affairs of the Bhawanipur Education Society College (BESC). The idea was to confront the fears that stalk us; to inculcate the habit of sharing them with our near …
Name of the Activity: Quiz Type of Activity: Academic Time: 10.15 A.M. Details of Resource persons (Name, Designation, Affiliation, Area of Specialisation, etc): N.A No. of Participants: 44 Objective of the event: The objective of an Academic quiz is to create a stimulating and educational experience that tests participant’s knowledge, promotes learning, fosters critical thinking, …
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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