Guest Lecture:As a part of Samanvay, on 2nd January 2020 the Department of English jointly with History Department conducted a workshop on "Research Methodology and Research Writing". It was an honour to have Dr. Saroja Ganpathy, an imminent faculty from Vellore Institute of Technology. A fun and interactive session helped students understand what research meant to be and what intricacies it involves. She acquainted them with various key terms such as research area, research problem, research tools, research methodologies etc. In short, it was a great learning experience for everyone. Annual Festival: On 3rd January 2020, the Department of English organised a Literary Fest called "MadHatters" with Dystopian Horror as its exclusive theme of this year. It was meant to be a reaction against the present-day society. The theme tried to cover the dystopian quality of the contemporary events happening around and bring to the surface their horrific effects on us.The following activities were successfully conducted on this occasion:
1. Open Mic Event- Each participant was given 4-5 min to speak on any topic he/she would want to. There was no restriction on the selection of the topic.
2. Play enactment- The students enacted scenes from the play "Harvest" written by Manjula Padmanabhan. The play is concerned with the horrors of organ selling in India set in the near future. Apart from the events mentioned above, there was a sale of books and bookmarks. The students had also kept a Photo-booth where they could get their photos clicked using the many props made by them. Guest Performance:A guest performance titled ‘Glimpses: Theatrical performance’ was organized on 23rd November 2019. Students (12-17 years old) from Aum Yash Kendra, a premier speech and drama institute in Prabhadevi, were invited to perform excerpts from various plays which are part of the English Literature curriculum. Students of FYBA, SYBA, and TYBA- primarily those with English as an optional subject- attended the performance.
Reader's Club:
1) Ripples: an Initiative to ‘Read, Recite, and Remember'Department took this initiative to inculcate the reading habit amongst students. On 10th December 2019, the birth anniversary of Emily Dickinson, we held the inaugural session of Reader's Club; it was titled 'Ripples: an Initiative to Read, Recite, and Remember'. Interested students participated and recited their own poems as well as poems by their favourite authors.
2) Paint a Poem:The aim of the activity was to make students understand how arts and expression of arts can change modes. Paint a poem was organized on 14th Feb 2020 at 10.30 am. It was open to all. The participants were supposed to bring a poem of their choice and paint what they understand of it. Colours, Brush, and Paper was provided to the participants.
3) Howl- An Open Mic: This was in continuation to the film-screening of the film Howl based on a poem by Allen Ginsberg (Details are below). The activity aimed to provide a platform for students to express themselves, relieve and let the stress go before they face exams. The activity was held on 29th Feb. 2020. It was open to all. Participants sang songs, recited poetry, read and expressed their thoughts.
Film Screening:
1) Waiting for Godot: The film, ‘Waiting for Godot’ is an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s play by the same name. The screening was arranged, on 8th Feb. 2020, particularly for TYBA students and kept open to all. The play is part of TYBA curricula for sixth semester. The film helped students to understand the visual aspects of the play. The screening was followed by a discussion.
2) Howl: We arranged a screening of the film Howl (2010) on 29th Feb. 2020 for students of SYBA. The film is based on 1955 poem by American poet Allen Ginsberg which is a part of the syllabus. The purpose was to make students understand it peculiarities as a composition. The screening was followed by a discussion and an open mic.