Friday 26 July 2013

Plants, Politics and Society - Past and Present


Dr.Narasimhan’s lecture was on Plants, Politics and Society, and how plants have been used as economic and political tools in the past as well as in the present. Excerpts from his speech:


There’s an interconnection that exists between every field of study. However, we don’t have the eye to see this interconnection among the various subjects of study.

A holistic approach is very important today but unfortunately it is missing in our present curriculum, because we have the habit of looking at subjects as water-tight compartments. If we look at history even Before Christ, plants have always been resources for building kingdoms and empires. Wars, especially Kalinga Wars, and Alexander’s were fought mainly to access land resources, especially fertile lands to feed the growing population and vast armies of their countries. And, whenever they went for a war, they also took along with them a section of people as slaves. Hence, agreement and slavery are inseparable. In India, our slavery system is caste-based.

Monday 22 July 2013

Dr.Rajeevnath Ramnath delivering the lecture on Applied Linguistics

Friday 19 July 2013

Guest Lecture - Invite

Dear Students of I MA/II MA English Literature,

You are invited for a lecture by Dr.Rajeevnath Ramnath, Associate Professor of English, Assumption University, Thailand, on the topic, "Why not an "app" for Applied Linguistics?", on Monday, 22 July 2013 between 9.30 and 11.30 am in the M.Phil Classroom.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Inauguration of the English Literary Forum

The English Literary Forum was inaugurated by Dr.V.Rajagopalan, former Head, Dept of English, MCC, to a packed Anderson Hall which listened with rapt attention to his spellbinding lecture on 'Appreciating Literature.' 

Good literature, according to him, should deal with the tension between good and evil. Knowledge has to be demystified and subjects defamilarised, he said, and added that the burden of his address was to validate the classics.