Conference on Queer Thoughts

Queer Thoughts

A Conference organized by Sappho for Equality

10 – 11 April 2009

Kolkata

Queer Thoughts is a conference organized by Sappho for Equality encouraging young persons all over India to come up with their thoughts, ideas, concerns, analyses and expressions on the theme ‘Queer’.

Sappho for Equality is an organization engaged in sexuality rights movement in general and LBT rights movement in particular. It is an open forum for activists who believe in and strive to attain a world free from homophobia and sexual orientation based discrimination.

Queer Thoughts is envisaged as a two-day conference divided into four sessions. Each session would have a distinct key theme and 2/3 papers on each theme will be presented in the sessions.

The four key themes are:

1. Defining queer (how to define the term queer, who is a queer, socio-political and gender-sexual understanding of queer)
2. Living queer (living as a queer in this country, queer experiences, triumph and turbulence of queer existence)
3. Expressing queer (queer as a theme expressed though literature, film, theatre, painting, sculpture or any other art form)
4. Politicizing queer (emergence of queer politics, queer as a political identity, queer rights movement and its politics)

Each of these sessions will be chaired by noted personalities, nationally and internationally acclaimed academicians and activists engaged in queer studies and queer rights movement.

Queer Thoughts as a space primarily for young persons will generate many fresh, dynamic, path breaking and stimulating ideas, discussions and action points. Sappho for Equality expects to bring out new, thought provoking and challenging concepts on the theme ‘queer’ through this conference that if incorporated, will help the queer rights movement.

We invite original, interesting and substantial papers, within 3000 words, from young persons between 20 to 28 years on any of the four key themes indicated above. An abstract of approximately 300 words should be emailed to sappho1999@rediffmail.com by 15^th of March, 2009. Those whose abstracts are selected will be invited to present papers at the conference. Please attach short curriculum vitae along with the abstract and contact numbers. Papers should be in English only. Outstation participants will be provided with train fare (to and fro) and board and lodging in the city for the conference days.

Sappho, Support Group for Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Women

Extra questions for report writing- for the 2nd semester FEP writing skills paper

Hey everyone!
These are the additional practice questions ma'am sent Komal. Hope they are useful.

1. Assume that you work for a small medical insurance company concerned with the rising number of medical claims being submitted by your customers. To combat this, your company has initiated a campaign designed to entice your customers to adopt healthier lifestyles, and has begun sending brochures and personalized letters to customers. Some customers have expressed concern that this is an indication that the company will become more reluctant to pay their claims.

2. Write a trip report to your boss, Monica Jenkins, CEO of Jenkins Marketing Specialists, Inc. Your goal in writing a trip report is to inform management about new procedures, equipment, or laws, or to supply information affecting products, operations, and services. Ms. Jenkins supported your request to attend the Business Etiquette Conference, sponsored by the Business Management Association and held at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, at Broom Hall, College of Business. The six-day conference was held April 18–23, 2006. Your goal is to let Ms. Jenkins know that you gathered valuable information that will benefit the company.
a. Write an introductory paragraph in which you identify the event (exact date, sponsor name, conference theme and name, and location) and preview the topics to be discussed in your report.
b. In the body, summarize three to five main points from one presentation you attended each day at the conference. State how you benefited from the conference and how what you learned will also benefit the reader and Jenkins Marketing Specialists, Inc.
c. Express appreciation, suggest action to be taken, or synthesize the value of the trip or conference.
In your report, highlight interesting and important facts using typographical tools such as boldface, headings, and bullets. Itemize your expenses on a separate page as an attachment to your report.

Question paper pattern-Writing Skills

Hey guys! This is the question paper pattern that Abhaya ma'am gave me.Hope it is useful!
P.S.- No need to go through the rest like bibliography etc. because ma'am said there would be no time to attempt short and long questions simulataneously. Moreover, Komal Sarvi has extra practice questions. Please contact her or mail ma'am for the questions.

10 Marks- 5 questions- no choice

1.Converting a paragraph into a flowchart.
2.Graph analysis
3.Paraphrase
4.Report Writing (Memo)
5.Rewriting a passage in outline

All the best!
:)

II Sem General English End SEM Question paper Pattern

Section A: Perspectives

Answer any SIX of the following in about 150 words: (6x5=30)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6

7.

8.

9.

Section B – Perspectives

Answer any THREE of the following in about 250-300 words: (3x10=30)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Section C – Towards Communicative Competence

1.

2.

3.

4. Comprehension Passage

World Literature End-Sem Examination - Question Paper Pattern and Guidelines for Answers

Question Paper pattern

Instructions
i) Answer any 5 of the following in 400-500 words. choosing one compulsorily from each section (A,B, C, D). The 5th essay may be from any section.
ii)Your answers must have a thesis statement that aptly reflects your argument.

Section A: Poetry
Section B: Novel
Section C: Essays
Section D: Drama

----
I have spoken to the question bank in-charge and evaluators concerned and following is the guideline for answering.

1. Before you start answering, please jot down your thoughts in points format in the beginning of the answer. And then develop the answers.

2. Answer the question asked. Look closely if the question is asking you to defend the statement made, to discuss, elucidate, or trace the history. Accordingly develop your answers.

3. Every answer must have a thesis statement which should reflect your central argument.

If there any clarifications you wish to seek, please feel free to key them in the comment section below.

Works of Cha. Fra. - A Study

Following is the link to the report of the UGC Minor Research Project I had done on a Konkani playwright and poet Cha. Fra. (Charles Francis D'Costa) between 2005 and 2008 -Works of Cha. Fra.: A Study. The study happens to the first formal research in Konkani literature in Kannada Script. I also used the research outcome to write my MPhil thesis entitled Konkani Christian Psyche in the Plays of Cha. Fra.: A Semiotic Study.



Pinto, Anil. Works of Cha. Fra.:A Study. Research Report. University Grants Commission. New Delhi. 2008.



Works of Cha. Fra.: A Study by Anil Joseph Pinto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at anilpinto.blogspot.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/search?q=works+of+cha.+fra..

The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad: Admissions 2009

The Courses on Offer for the Academic year 2009-2010

-Five-year Integrated M.A. in English, Arabic, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Japanese and Mass Communication and Journalism. (Eligibility: Intermediate/10+2.Those who wish to apply for foreign language programmes need not possess any knowledge of the language concerned.)
- Two-year M.A. Programmes in English, Arabic, French, Russian, Spanish and Japanese.
- B. Ed in English
- Post Graduate Diploma in the Teaching of English (PGDTE)
- Post Graduate Certificate in the Teaching of English (PGCTE)
- Post Graduate Diploma in the Teaching of Arabic (PGDTA)
- MPhil and PhD in Linguistics & Phonetics, English Language Education, English
Literature, Cultural Studies, Comparative Philosophy and Aesthetics, Comparative Literature, Translation studies, Media and Communications, Mass Communication and Journalism, Film Studies and Visual Communications, Hindi Literature, French, Arabic, German, Russian.

Accommodation:
Selected candidates will be provided accommodation and mess facility with a nominal room rent and mess fee.

NB: Students of the B.Ed programme may not be provided accommodation, but can avail
themselves of the mess facility in the hostels.

Reservations
Scheduled Castes 15%
Scheduled Tribes 7.5%
OBC - As per Government of India/UGC rules applicable to Central Universities
Physically/Visually challenged candidates - 3%
Kashmiri migrants 1%
Wards of Defense Personnel - 1%

Fee Concessions
a) No tuition fee shall be charged from SC/ST students. In addition, they can also expect free accommodation and a stipend up to Rs. 1000/- per month towards other expenses.

b) Differently-abled (physically challenged) students will be exempted from payment of all fees.

c) All needy students (economically backward), if they apply and make a case for assistance, will be given adequate stipends for meeting a major portion of the expenses on board and lodging.

Scholarships/Fellowships
a) All MPhil and PhD students will be getting a fellowship of Rs. 3000/- and Rs. 5000/- respectively per month, if they are not recipients of other scholarships. (This fellowship is likely to be enhanced in the current academic year).

b) MPhil and PhD students belonging to SC and ST categories are eligible to apply for the UGC sponsored Rajiv Gandhi Fellowship. The selected candidates will get a sum of Rs.12,000/- per month in addition to Rs. 3600/- towards House Rent Allowance (HRA), every month.

Admission to all courses will be based on entrance tests held across the country. Interested candidates can send a mail to eflutalentsearch@gmail.com or a self-addressed envelope (5x11size) with a postage stamp of Rs. 10/ pasted on it to Dr. A. Hariprasad, Chief Coordinator, EFL-U Talent Search 2009, The English and Foreign Languages University (EFL-U), Hyderabad - 500605. The candidates will be intimated on further details regarding admissions. Kindly mention on top of the envelope or in the mail, the course you wish to apply for, and the category (SC, ST, OBC, etc.) in case you are
entitled to avail yourself of any reservation. The last date for receiving requests will be April 20, 2009.

www.efluniversity.ac.in

Arms and the Man chat class

It was decided to have Arms of the Man discussion on yahoochat at 4 pm today (Sunday). However, some felt that I should have it tomorrow at 4. What do you feel. I am keen on having it today, instead of tomorrow. But if majority of you feels that it should be tomorrow, that should be fine. Please indicate your preferences in the comments section below by 12 noon today. Will clarify by 12.30 pm. My yahoo id is : ajpinto42@yahoo.co.in.

since, many were absent yesterday, can you inform all your classmates, either through sms or emial?


Since there are only three responses, I will have the chat session at 4 today (sunday)

Lacan and 'A Doll's House'

Notes by Kanasu, III yr FEP

The Four Kinds of Discourses of Lacan.

What does one mean when they say that something is a woman’s play? It means that the play should evoke the female symbolic. It needs to create a woman’s world. It should not re-emphasize the male world and therefore, evoke the male symbolic.

1. Discourse of the Master
2. Discourse of the University
3. Discourse of the Analyst
4. Discourse of the Hysteric

Each of these discourses is characterized by an equation. The numerator on the left hand side of the equation holds the most dominant position, and it constantly endeavors to achieve the will of the numerator on the right hand side of the subject.

Each of these discourses is characterized by an equation. The numerator on the left hand side of the equation holds the most dominant position, and it constantly endeavors to achieve the will of the numerator on the right hand side of the subject.

The S₁ stands for the conscious subject.

The S₂ stands for opposite of the conscious subject (the other of the conscious subject) and is always trying to usurp the position of S₁.

$ stands for the unconscious subject.

a stands for the object that wants or needs to be possessed. It is the object of desire. It is something that can never be fathomed but will always be longed for.

1. Discourse of the Master

In the master’s discourse, the conscious subject is the master, and what he says becomes the dominant discourse. The unconscious subject is pushed down, and the master’s discourse is constantly absorbed by S₂. Here, the master’s discourse is accepted without question.

2. Discourse of The University

Here, you accept the other as it is. The concept becomes more important than the unconscious subject. The unconscious subject is pushed to the last position. No suppressed feelings or ideologies are encouraged in this discourse. It is least important. There is a constant endeavor to understand the concept, ‘a’ in this discourse. Moreover, the knowledge becomes more important than the person seeking the knowledge itself.

3. Discourse of the Analyst

In the discourse of the analyst, the unconscious is not confronted face to face. However, the unconscious is not suppressed but asked to open up to the analyst. The conscious subject S₁ is pushed to the last position. Here, there is no ideology that is being mapped onto the unconscious. It is only an attempt to discover the unconscious.

4. Discourse of the Hysteric

Here, the unconscious subject comes to the dominant position. The dominant position becomes important and almost becomes the conscious subject. The structures of S₁ and

S₂ are not recognized. The unconscious does not recognize the structure of S₁ or S₂ which are both part of patriarchy (in the case of Doll’s House). It is least bothered about the other.

The Hysteric, then, becomes the female symbolic.

Is Doll’s House then, a woman’s play?

It can only be a woman’s play if it evokes a female symbolic, if it tries to evoke the hysteric (in this case), and not necessarily about the suffering of women.

Keeping these things in mind, if it is a woman’s play, then how? If it is not a woman’s play, then how?

Reference:

Pinto, Anil. Class Lecture. Is there a Woman's Play. Christ University. Bangalore, India. 07 Mar 2009.

Towards a New Poetics of Practice: Rethinking Feminist Response to the Mangalore Pub Attack

Towards a New Poetics of Practice: Rethinking Feminist Response to the Mangalore Pub Attack - A Discussion with Lata Mani

Venue: Alternative Law Forum, No. 122/4 Infantry Road, Bangalore- 560001
Date: Friday the 13th (yes I know :), March 2009
Time : 6 PM

Lata Maini's note: "In this brief note I raise questions that are posed by the nature and form of feminist response to the attack on women in the Amnesia pub in Mangalore and to the spirited defence of Valentine’s Day that followed Sri Ram Sene’s vigilantism. The creative momentum generated by these events suggest that we may be in a moment in which new activist formations can be forged in response to Right Wing lawlessness. However, the exclusive recourse to a liberal discourse of rights and the refusal to engage questions of culture and ethics have restricted the scope of our interventions and left urgent sociocultural and economic tensions unaddressed. If we are to “seize the time” we would need to engage these difficult questions and be willing to set aside various sacred and secular cows in the process."

Since the intent is to initiate dialogue, Lata Mani will speak for 15 minutes. Du Saraswathy will respond and the floor will then be opened for discussion.

Class 1 on Lacan and A Doll's House

Notes for the class on using Lacan to destabilize the existing idea of Doll’s House as a Feminist Play

• Lacan and Iregary are the two people we are going to touch upon in this respect.
• Background of Lacan: He was kicked out of the psychoanalytic association and he was thrown out of the hospitals he was teaching in because he took client’s time only for 3 min or 2 min instead of the allotted one hour.
• He started lecturing everyday. He had students of the likes of Foucault and Derrida.
• In India, we have only retained Freud and we have never looked at Lacan seriously. Freud came before colonialism.

• Lacan introduced three concepts

1. Real
2. Imaginary
3. Symbolic

• For Lacan, language belonged to the symbolic as against the real out there.

• He said that there was always a tension between the symbolic and the unconscious.
• Notion of the subject is one who suffers, and one who always has to deal with suffering as opposed to the individual, who is more marked by his actions. Individual tends to believe that he functions from a space outside society, and that he can establish or bring about change. This idea emerges post Protestantism and Industrialisation.
• All spaces mark you as something or someone. You are the person, therefore, who is suffering that construct that the space puts upon you.
• You are produced constantly and this gives you coherence.
• The symbol of the tension between the symbolic and the unconscious creates a tension; a tension that challenges the “I think, therefore I am”. There is a gap between the symbolic which is the “I think” and the “I am” which is the unconscious. Therefore, you are not formed before you think.
• All representations do not represent reality but only in a specific urban tradition.
• Slumdog uses the realist tradition to represent the real. It is mot the real.

Iregary: Symbolic is male. All that we produce is the male symbolic. Necessary other to the male and hence outside the male symbolic is the female symbolic. Therefore, the only sex that is there is male. The female is only outside the male self.

Now, then, is Doll’s House then a feminist play in that it seeks to address or speak about the female symbolic? Or does it still speak of the male symbolic itself?

Independence-she walks out- male symbolic

Economic freedom- male symbolic

Where is the female symbolic then?

It is only mimicking the male to draw attention to the male itself in order to destabilize the male symbolic.

[Education and media are the two main ideological apparatus that of the state that perpetuates the male symbolic]

By mimicking, then, they just point to the gap between the male symbolic and the unconscious and are not really creating a female’s play.

Having said all this, is Doll’s House then, a woman’s play?

Reference:

Pinto, Anil. Class Lecture. Is there a Woman's Play. Christ University. Bangalore, India. 06 Mar 2009.

Fourth Summer School on Philosophy for the Social Sciences and Humanities

Centre for Philosophy
National Institute of Advanced Studies
Fourth Summer School on Philosophy for the Social Sciences and Humanities
(Sponsored by ICSSR Western Regional Centre, Mumbai)

A three-week summer school for MA, MPhil and PhD students from all over the country will be held at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore.
Dates: Monday, June 8, 2009 – Friday, June 26, 2009

Who Can Apply
MA, MPhil and early PhD students working in the broad areas of social sciences and humanities (including philosophy).

How to Apply
Send a CV (with marks, email, phone and contact address details) along with an essay/working paper that you have written. The last date for receiving the complete application is March 15, 2009.

Accommodation and Travel
Selected students will be reimbursed for their outstation travel by non–AC, sleeper class train or bus fare (to and fro) and will also be provided accommodation free of cost at NIAS during the course period.

Contact: Send your application as an email attachment to Centre for Philosophy, NIAS, email: cfpnias@gmail.com or mail a hard copy to the address below.
Centre For Philosophy
National Institute of Advanced Studies
Indian Institute of Science Campus
Bangalore - 560012
Telephone: +91-80-22185000
(For more information, see http://www.nias.res.in/researchgroups-cfp-programmes.php)

I FEP SUMMER INTERNSHIP – APRIL, MAY 2009 Guidelines

Guidelines for the group assigned to me (08D4401 – 4418):

• Prepare a proposal in about 100 words and email it to me. The proposal should include name and address of the newspaper where you would be doing your internship, a brief write up on that newspaper, reasons for your choice of that particular newspaper, your plans during the internship and your opinion on how the internship will help you develop as an effective media person. The proposal should reach me on or before 15 March 2009.

• You are to collect a diary from Mr Kennedy by showing the receipt for Rs 30 paid at the admission office. Make entries into the diary on day-to-day basis. Your diary entries should include the assignments you were given, details of how you went about doing the assignments, new things you learnt about the field, about yourself and your abilities that day. After a few days, the diary entries will look similar, clichéd and monotonous. It is up to you to find newness and creativity in your internship everyday.

• During your internship in the newspapers, try to get as many by-lines as possible. They will carry a lot of weight on your CV later. However, you will soon realise that it is not easy to get them. Most of the time the news briefs or news stories that you write will be published under the title ‘From our staff correspondent’ or ‘_____ News Network.’ Do not lose heart.

• Try to build as many contacts as possible both within the organisation and with people you meet in the field. You will realise the value of it during the internship and later as you try to climb the professional and social ladder.

• Try and do challenging news stories or features. See if you can come up with your own topics for features or news stories. Remember journalism is literature in a hurry and has a very short life span. Therefore, timeliness of an article or news is the most crucial value that will prove your talent and ability. Your genius is not what will make you valuable but your consistency.

• Compile the copies of your published works regularly, be they briefs, news stories or features in a file. You will have to submit them along with your on-the-job reports when the college reopens.

• If you want some guidance, want to share your success or failure feel free to email me anytime

All the best

MA in English with Communication Studies

Christ University offers MA in English with Communication Studies in four semesters. The programme is first of its kind in India in that it broadens the English studies programme to include the newer fields that have emerged within the English studies domain in the last few years. It is also the first Maters programme in English to introduce compusory internship.

Facilities: The programme gives access to a very good library which is updated almost every week. There is also access to online journal databases such as JSTOR, EBSCOR, ICFAI Journals. The campus is fully wi-fi enabled.

The University has an MOU with CSCS (Centre for the Study of Cutlure and Society, Bangalore) . CSCS offers regular certificate programmes in Cultural Studies, Media, and Gender Studies.

Following are

Semester I
British Literature: Genres & Ideas
Reading Twentieth Century European Art, Culture & Society
Literary Criticism
American Literary Thoughts & Ideas
Professional Communication

Semester II
Gender Studies
Contemporary Theory
Linguistics
English Language Teaching
Mass Communication

Internship (Educational institution, Research centre, Media House)

Semester III
Indian Literatures In Translation
World Literatures
Research & Writing Heuristics
Postcolonial Studies
Theatre Studies

Semester IV
Dissertation
Contemporary Indian Novel (In English)
Cultural Studies
Film Studies
Popular Culture
Translation Studies (Elective)
Script writing for Radio, Television & Film (Elective)

The Department also offers MPhil and PhD programme.

For further details you mail email to admission@christuniversity.in or post your questions in the comments section below.

Rethinking English Studies.

When one of my colleagues asked me to give a list of possible courses that could go into the proposed BA English Studies (honours) programme at our University, following the list that I emailed to her. I am posting it here so that those who are looking for rethinking their English Studies curriculum can benefit from it.

1. Gender and English studies
2. Gender and Culture
3. English language and linguistics (Strongly recommend it.) - A common course in most Continental and Asian university honours curriculum.
4. Latin American Literature
5. South Asian literature (very potential. The field is already emerging with conferences being organized and books being published. Strongly recommend.
6. African literature.
7. South Indian literature/Dravidian literature (We will be the first to offer this paper? Wanna make history?. I am all for it. Strongly recommended.)
8. Reading, Reading Practices and Critical Theory.
9. Children's literature. (not so popular in India as yet, but a rage on either sides of the Atlantic.)
10. Literature and other disciplines (philosophy, theology, history, sociology, anthropology, music, paining, journalism- to look at their engagement with literature both in disciplinary theory and practice)
11. Popular literature
12. Colonial literature in India (literature produced in India during the colonial periods by the orientalists, Colonizers, nationalists and others - as this laid the foundation for literary production in India as also set numerous problematic discourses rolling. An area that has remained only as domain of history and culture studies research. Needs to be brought to the academia.
13. Convert American literature to North American literature more as a postcolonial/postglobalisation strategy.
14. Please avoid Canadian and Australian. I seriously do not see any merit compared to the papers we already have and those that I have suggested. They largely managed to push themselves though funding - a political agenda. And we failed to so seriously look at African literature or Latin American literature as an area to be engaged with - they were cash starved and going there was below dignity and there were no 'good' scholarships.
15. Folk Studies
16. World literatures in translations
17. Canonical Classics in Translation
18. Queer literature

Let not our fears and our inability to give up uncontested traditions stop us.