International Conference on The Architectures of Erotica:political, social, ritual

The School of Arts and Aesthetics, J N U

http://www.jnu.ac.in/saa

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference

November 10 – 13, 2010

Call for Papers:

What constitutes the erotic ? Why is it represented with such frequency in Indian cultural practices ? How do we interpret these practices? These have been questions central to Indian art history since the very inception of the discipline, presenting us with an opportunity now to trace the historiography of interpretations / constructions of erotica. This question is once again timely in the light of current censorship debates in which paintings, sculptures, films and performances have been put under a magnifying glass. The School of Arts and Aesthetics is organizing a conference to explore the erotic within the context of religious, ritual and secular practices from pre modern through to contemporary times. Our conference will address a broad canvas of culture by nvolving speakers from cinema studies, theatre and performance studies,

history, indology, anthropology and visual studies. In India the subject entered a non‐religious sphere in the Kamashastras at an early date. The multiple historical functions of erotic evocations in Indian arts need reiteration in our times. The mithuna or loving couple, for instance, was an auspicious symbol on the gateways of religious shrines, but it was equally a powerful talisman. As a mimetic substitute for a magico‐religious fertility ritual, it may have warded off foetus‐stealing demons. Elsewhere, it became a tool by which one community could poke fun at another on a temple wall, while it also was a symbolic metaphor connecting one architectural structure with another. It was said to help the earth endure the electrical shock of lightening even as it remained a coded Tantric message. Yet vacillating attitudes plague studies of Tantra; perhaps the only institutionalised space to consciously express erotic dirt and depravity, its scholarly readings remain mired in the promise of double‐entendres that speak of higher, subtler psychological and metaphysical truths to their initiates. Erotic metaphors abound also in the typecasting of different Nayikas and Nayakas in medieval literature that explore tropes ranging from the admiration of their bodies to their experience of the duality of pleasure / pain (frequently represented through biting scorpions and the ricking of thorns). Yet, there remains a serious lack in art‐history and studies n classical literature in excavating tropes typecasting the erotic male figure.

As a means of subversion on the other hand, erotic poetry became a powerful tool for religious Bhakti’s ecstatic and unmediated union with god. Painting followed poetry in imaging the minute details of Krisha and Radha’s love. Similarly, erotic union became a standard feature of stories recounted at edieval Indian Sufi shrines that were to become a subject of the earliest Indo‐

Islamic painted miniatures. The constructions of tropes on same‐sex love in South Asia has proved to be no small task for scholarship. Un‐mentioned, yet pervasive, the vacillating attitudes towards homosexuality in Indian art can finally be discussed in the light of growing academic interest in the field. Turning attention to non‐canonical artefacts like decorative objects, the framework of religion which is normally assumed to be a broad umbrella term may be fractured to shed light on specific cultural practices through a focus on the erotic in everyday life. Objects of fetish, food and annals of superstition and edicine provide both, fodder for titillating a partner or providing an aphrodisiac. Despite the pervasiveness of the erotic until pre‐colonial times, it must, no doubt, even in its own times have been received with both approval, indifference and even with opposition to it, just as scholarship has noted the complexity of both colonial and postcolonial attitudes to Indian erotica. Through the lens of historiography, we can shift the focus to retakes on 'tradition' to legitimize cultural politics. Central to the debate around eroticism is how it is implicated in the way the private and public domains are separated. Just as there are representations of the erotic, one can engage with the erotics of representation that not only subsumes gender, but also caste‐based hierarchies. Moreover, modernism's policing of boundaries between high versus low, classical versus folk, religious versus secular, etc. can also be contextualized within the discourse of eroticism and sexuality. Increasingly in he post‐modern world, therefore, the project of representation itself becomes suspect as grand narratives lose their credibility. Performance Studies allows us to shift the whole debate by looking through erotica rather than at it. The protagonists of erotic theatre and film permit a retake on the usual public scrutiny that leads to assumptions about their morality. Nowhere is this better played out than in representations of actresses; and by investigating nineteenth and twentieth century theatre, the biographies of actresses, dancers and singers and these women's performances we can try and explore the subject from the perspective of the providers of the public demand for erotica. A feminist study to reconcile sexuality and the female lifestyle with the professional demands of theatrical conventions on the one hand and the fulfilment stereotypes established by popular pornographic images can certainly prove illuminating. Not only does this lead to a study of the affects of pleasure, it does so in the terrain of the popular / societal. We an now ask what politically‐transformative means surface, how pleasure can move us, and how it can mobilize us towards feminist ends. The erotic turns into a force‐field as soon as it goes through the circuits of mass‐production, as seen with reference to major debates conducted on the question of sexual explicitness in the media. For the field of photography, film, television and new media, the erotic has been closely allied with the ‘reality effect’ central to mechanical reproduction (ever narrowing the gap between the irtual and real). The question of technology can thus no longer be separated from these discussions. The cinematic transformation of the body through gesture, fashion, dance, music and mise‐en‐scene creates an erotic sensorium that circulates further through discussions and programmes on the radio, television, magazines, the internet, billboards, and posters. This play with the senses through a powerful visual culture creates a sexualized public domain which has also seen a consolidation in the period after globalization. Globalization has brought with it anxiety about cultural identity that further foregrounds the urgency of addressing the question of eroticism in contemporary contexts. The medium transforms the very terms of representation in the age of mechanical reproduction where the erotic is no longer a matter of representation or performitivity or enactment but the ‘virtual’ is often somebody’s ‘real’, and legitimately thus, seeking representation publicly. Certainly, the contemporary cinema‐studies scholarship on pornography and gratuitous sexuality has widened the scholarly exploration of desire and its psychological readings . Virtual reality, on‐line dating and the reports of rape being committed in econd Life bring us to new questions of the experience of the erotic without the presence of the body. Similarly, state censorship is now central to the way film and television negotiate the cultural taboos of the public sphere and yet it is precisely when the unwritten taboo is crossed that the domain of the erotic enters a discourse on pornography. What is seen as artistic erotica by some is termed pornography by others. Ultimately these distinctions are based on aesthetic, moral and cultural choices / subjectivities and continue to be controversial. It is he aim of this conference to provoke discussion on the boundaries within which the erotic gets defined. Even before one can contend with matters concerning the erotic in India’s cultural practices openly in academic discussions, let alone their public perception, the database of the types and spaces for erotica in 21st century India has suddenly become so much more widespread that its interpretations in the present age must contend with the new face of erotica. Whereas the era of the video‐tape in the 1980s and 1990s proliferated western pornography to rural and urban India, new technologies via VCDs, DVDs, the net and mobile ion

phones allow for new means of soliciting and meeting partners, and animatadds a whole new dimension to porn. To consider the emplacement of the erotic in the cultural practices of India from ancient to contemporary times, we propose a four day conference from 10 13 November, 2010. Some of the possible panels / thematics that have been identified are as follows:

1. The Erotic Talisman

2.New studies in Tantra rotic: The Cult of the Devadasi,

3. Institutionalising a public space for the Tawaif

4. Courtly Literature and Erotic Aesthetics

5. Framing the Sacred Erotic: Bhakti and Sufi constructions and sanctions of the erotic Oriental Bodies to Goddesses in Calendar Prints and

6. From Colonial Fantasy and Cinema Icons

7. Fetishes and aphrodisiacs

8. Do we have a typology for an erotic male? dia

9. Erotica and the modernist gaze tica in In aze

10.The Historiography of same‐sex ero

11.Erotic performance and the cinematic g

12.Dance, Trance and the Erotic Ritual

13.Censorship, Provocation and Eroticism

14.Autobiography and Eroticism: Fashioning the Self art

15 .Femme Fatale: Exploring the Trope of the Erotic Tragedienne practice d red erotica

16.Psycho‐sexual readings of Erotica in Indian culturalan17.Constructions of altered sexualities and trans‐gende18. Marginalia: a sanctioned space for erotic and other alamkara‐

Publication:

The proceedings of the conference will be published and a subvention towards the publication is already secured. Speakers at the conference must not have committed their papers elsewhere.

THE SCHOOL OF ARTS & AESTHETICS PROJECT FOR EDUCATION IN THE ARTS & RESOURCE BUILDING (SPEAR)

SPEAR is a three year (SEPTEMBER 2008 – SEPTEMBER 2011) project designed by the School of Arts and Aesthetics to create a model for the proliferation of education in three streams of the Arts – Visual Studies, Theatre and Performance Studies and Cinema Studies. Spear is designed as a comprehensive programme to ensure wider dissemination, collaboration, expansion and enrichment of education in the Arts. During the three years of the project, the School will build on its material resources, invite distinguished faculty, hold regular workshops and conferences, seek institutional collaborations for furthering research, organize public lectures and disburse competitive student fellowships. The objective of this programme is to accelerate the pace of Arts education through an intensive three year exercise which can subsequently turn into a model for other institutions to emulate. SPEAR is supported by the Tata Social Welfare Trust. This conference is held under its auspices.

Funding for the Conference:

A limited number of International and National airfares and maintenance allowances will be met by SPEAR. Should you wish to apply for these, please send your abstract and bio-data addressed ‘Architectures of Erotica’ to spearjnu AT gmail DOT com with a copy to jnuartpress AT gmail DOT com. Delegates who may already have avenues of funding available to them personally, from their institutions or other avenues, should inform: the Conference Coordinator, SPEAR, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi 67. This will, naturally, allow us to utilise our funds to support those delegates who may not have other avenues for funding.

Visas:

International delegates can attend or present papers at the conference on a tourist Visa obtainable from your nearest Indian Embassy, Consulate or High Commission. We will provide you with the necessary letters of invitation to support your application.

Deadline for Submission of Abstracts:

Scholars interested in reading a 30 minute paper at the conference, must send a one-page (400 word max) abstract along with their CV by 1 June, 2010 at the address / e mail given below:

For any further queries, please contact:

Coordinator, SPEAR,

School of Arts and Aesthetics,

JNU, New Delhi 67;

spearjnu AT gmail DOT com

OR VISIT http://www.jnu.ac.in/saa

MA English Translation Studies

Please post your questions regarding the Translation Studies course here

MA English Culture and Disciplines Questions

Please post your questions regarding the Culture and Disciplines course here

Writing of the Introduction and Literature Review in a Research Proposal

What should go into the Introduction and Literature review of your Research proposal?
At first there was quite a difference in opinion in class where Pooja said the what of your research and why you're doing it should go into it, where as I said it should start with a brief background of your area of research and then go to talk about what is your domain and purpose, briefly.
We were then made to refer a standardised format where we learnt that a little bit of everything goes into the introduction!

The format is as follows

The synopsis is a brief out line (about four A-4 size pages or 1000 words is the maximum limit) of your future work.

TITLE: Should reflect the main purpose of the study. It is generally written after the whole synopsis has been written so that it is a true representative of the plan (i.e. the synopsis).

INTRODUCTION:
• As the name suggests the introduction introduces your work.
• It must clearly state the purpose of the study.
• Should contain brief background of the selected topic.
• It must identify the importance of study
• Should emphasize the relevance and justification of the study.
• If possible also mention the applicability of results.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:
• A comprehensive review of the current status of knowledge on the selected topic must be included.
• It should be a collective review and critique in the candidate's own words of various viewpoints.
• The review should be properly referenced.
• References should preferably be of the last five years, including some published in the recent past.
• However, older references can be cited provided they are relevant and historical.
• This should also include work published in recognized journals and in publications of various societies, as well as abstracts of meetings, conferences or seminars, websites etc.
• Data collected by others, whether published or unpublished, must be acknowledged whenever included.

HYPOTHESIS: A hypothesis is a statement showing expected relation between two variables.
or
RESEARCH QUESTIONS: A Research Question is a statement that identifies the phenomenon to be studied.
(The hypothesis or research question is optional. These may not be a part of your research proposal)

OBJECTIVES:
• Objective should start with an action verb and be sufficiently specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound (SMART). (Eg. To find, to measure…etc.)
• Objectives are statements of mentions.
• They inform the reader clearly what the researcher plans to do in his/her work.
• The must identify the variables involved in research.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

• STUDY DESIGN: Mention the name of the appropriate study design.
• SETTING: Name and place where the research work is to be conducted.
• DURATION OF STUDY: How long will the study take with dates.
• SAMPLE SIZE: How many respondents will be included. If there are groups how many per group?
• SAMPLING TECHNIQUE: Type of sampling technique employed.
• SAMPLE SELECTION:
o Inclusion criteria: on what bases will respondents be inducted in the study.
o Exclusion criteria: On what bases will respondents be excluded from the study.
• DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE: A detailed account of how the researcher will perform research; how s/he will measure the variable. It includes:
o Identification of the study variables
o Methods for collection of data
o Data collection tools (proforma/questionnaire)
• DATA ANALYSIS PROCEDURE: Relevant details naming software to be used, which descriptive statistics and which test of significance if and when required, specifying variables where it will be applied.

THE TIMELINE
The timeline for your project. Look at the course schedule to keep your due dates in mind and set up certain milestones (by day or by week) that you will accomplish to keep yourself on track.

OUTLINE
A brief outline of the parts of the paper

CONCLUSIONS: What will be the outcome of the study.

REFERENCES: A list of references contains details only of those works cited in the text.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: A bibliography lists sources not cited in the text but which are relevant to the subject and were used for background reading.

To sum the introduction up, you should introduce and ground your area of research in the Introduction.
Most importantly the Review of Literature is not just about quoting every scholar's work in your area of research. It is about building up an argument to establish that your work of study has not been done before, by locating fragments connected to your area of study in other works (and sometimes other fields).
You are basically to provide a 'backward history to your question,' by going back and referring various other works done in your area or field of research.
Certainly put us into perspective about the much misunderstood Literature Review.
Thank you :)

Workshop on “Gender and Culture”

March 17 - 19, 2010

Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore

The workshop seeks to explore the range of analytic possibilities that a conjuncture such as “gender and culture” makes available. A series of questions follow from the very act of positing such a conjuncture: Is “gender and culture” a thematic or a problematic? How does it align with or differentiate itself from the “gender and …” (any other object or domain such as politics/law/science etc.) series? What does the split between the two mutually constitutive terms indicate? Does the conjuncture “gender and culture” enable the production of new objects of inquiry? Or does it make available new modes of inquiry? What methodological issues emerge from the introduction of such a conjuncture into research agendas? How does it impact existing knowledge frames? These are among some of the questions that the workshop will address even as it will clarify the diverse uses of the key terms.

Both terms of the conjuncture, i.e. “gender” and “culture,” have over the years and through continually shifting registers of intelligibility acquired popular recognition. While the genealogy of these two terms within the Indian context still needs to be mapped, the existing body of scholarly work has already demonstrated that their trajectories are closely linked. They are intimately connected through the fact that the elaboration of the conceptual content of any one of the terms has often necessitated invocation of the other. Not surprisingly therefore the terms also cross-referentially underpin two interdisciplinary formations within the Indian context: Women’s Studies and Cultural Studies. While the culture question has increasingly come to be a critical part of feminist theorizing, the gender question has not been acknowledged within Cultural Studies to the same extent; this in spite of the fact that pathbreaking feminist interventions were foundational in constituting the field of Cultural Studies within India. The dynamics vis-à-vis the concepts within these two fields of knowledge need to be further queried in order to understand the overlap and difference between how they have engaged with the notions gender and culture.

The cultural turn for gender theory in India was occasioned by the women’s movement marking a shift away from its earlier emphasis on and address to the State. The ground breaking anthology Recasting Woman (1989) consolidated the efforts to provide an understanding of gender in the Indian context by focusing on social and cultural processes within the colonial period. The articles included in Recasting Woman, together with subsequent critical work on the colonial and nationalist moments, provide important elaboration of how vital the task of conceptualizing notions of gender and culture was for the process of building a hegemonic understanding of the Indian nation.

While the significance of this momentous work is undeniable, the dynamics of the gender and culture conjuncture in the contemporary moment of post-nationalism and globalization still awaits examination. We could also ask the question, “Has the “woman-culture” combination that produced our national imagination earlier lost its relevance or has there been a reinvention of its use?” Addressing such a question will require us to pay closer attention to the several and heterogeneous articulations made at diverse sites that have a bearing on our present understanding of the gender-culture dyad. It is possible also that an investigation of the contemporary moment might require us to go beyond the usual and easy conflation made between, for instance, the use of “gender” on the one hand and women on the other.

Another emerging scenario is also of interest in the context of our consideration of “gender and culture.” Certain objects and domains (literary works or films and issues of sexuality for instance) through their closer alignment with conceptions of culture have thus far been the more obvious choice for asking questions about gender and culture. Increasingly, however, the conjuncture has been critical in redefining discussions in areas where culture was earlier invoked only in a cursory manner. The paradigm of “women, culture and development” (WCD) that has been proposed recently is one such example. This paradigm follows upon the earlier ones within development thought, i.e. “women in development” (WID), “women and development” (WAD) and “gender and development” (GAD). The development sector is but one among many others that are now positing the gender-culture question. The task of elaborating this question in domains that have thus far eschewed such formulations will require us to examine the conjuncture much more carefully before we begin to forge new tools for analyses relevant to the present moment.

The workshop on “Gender and Culture” will take place between March 17 & 19, 2010 at the Centre for Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore and will be anchored by Dr. Rekha Pappu from the Gender Initiative, Higher Education Cell, Bangalore. A set of readings will be made available to the participants prior to the workshop. Each day of the workshop will focus on at least 2-3 key readings and will engage with the concepts, arguments and issues that emerge from the readings and are addressed to the objectives outlined above.

Interested M.Phil, Doctoral and Post-Doctoral researchers are welcome to participate in the workshop. Please write in/or send an e-mail by March 10, 2010 to the Convenor, Academic Committee at CSCS, Dr. Anup Dhar (anup at cscs dot res dot in) with copies marked to Rekha Pappu (rekhapappu at yahoo dot com) and Rakhi Ghoshal (rghoshal at cscs dot res dot in). Participants travelling from outside Bangalore will have to bear their own travel and accommodation expenses. The host institution will help them find accommodation.

SEMIOTICS

The idea of breakdown of fine objects started with Physics starting with the breakdown of atoms into electrons, protons and neutrons followed by the breakdown of mind by Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt. Breakdown of signs was also discussed in the class.
Semiotics is the study of sign processes. In today’s class we discussed semiotics as per the three people who contributed largely to the field of semiotics:

1. Ferdinand de Saussure: He was a Swiss linguist, and is widely considered to be one of the fathers of 20th-century linguistics and of semiotics. Course in General Linguistics was published in 1916 by former students Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye on the basis of notes taken from Saussure's lectures in Paris. This work became popular for its innovative approach that Saussure applied in discussing linguistic phenomena.
According to Saussure’s theory a sign is of two types:

SIGNIFIER

The signifier is the pointing finger, the word, the sound-image. A word is simply a jumble of letters. The pointing finger is not the star. It is in the interpretation of the signifier that meaning is created.

SIGNIFIED

The signified is the concept, the meaning, the thing indicated by the signifier. It need not be a 'real object' but is some referent to which the signifier refers.

2. Charles Sanders Peirce: He was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and a scientist. He also spoke about the two orders of signs. First-order can be defined as the first level of pragmatic meaning that is drawn from an utterance. Second-Order is concerned with the connection between linguistic variables and the metapragmatic meanings that they encode. According to his theory of signs he divided sings into:

ICON
It is a pattern that physically resembles what it `stands for. Example: A picture of your face is an icon of you.

INDEX
An Index is that which correlates A and B. Thus A implies or `points to' B. Example: Smoke indicates fire.

SYMBOL
This is arbitrary. A symbol has no logical meaning between it and the object. Example: Flags are symbols which represent countries or organisations.

3. Roland Barthes: He was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. He spoke about Myths. Eg: Roses can be a symbol of love and passion and for Barthes this is Myth and it is not arbitrary. So does flags it is a myth as it is only a piece of cloth but it stands for a country and it is accepted world wide.

Film Semiotics
Christian Metz contributed to the field of film semiotics. He argued that “one might call ‘language’…any unity defined in terms of its matter of expression…Literary language, in this sense, is the set of messages whose matter of expression is writing; cinematic language is the set of messages whose matter of expression consists of five tracks or channels: moving photographic image, recorded phonetic sound, recorded noises, recorded musical sound, and writing…Thus cinema is a language in the sense that it is a ‘technico-sensorial unity’ graspable in perceptual experience”.

SEMIOTICS IN RESEARCH
Semiotics can be used as a method, some examples are:
1.Bob Hodge and David Tripp employed empirical methods in their classic study of Children and Television (Hodge & Tripp 1986).
2.Studying films
3.Studying text
4.Study of Denotation and Connotation.

We ended the class by discussing how the practices of present day date back to the past and how religion is used with politics in India.

I must admit that these notes are referred from the net as I personally find semiotic studies very complicated.

Research Method - Interview

Today’s class was divided into two parts. The first 30 minutes was a combined class wherein the English Literature students were also present. The rest of the time was our usual class consisting of discussions.

In the first half, research proposals were discussed both for quantitative as well as qualitative methods.

The qualitative method has the following format:

Tentative Title
The context of the title for the research should be the same, it cant be changed later on into a completely different topic

Introduction
What is your research about?

Literature Review
Based on previous work done on the same subject and questions that have been answered on it

Research Question
What answers are you looking for through this research?

Chapter Division
Depending on your study the chapters can be more in number and while giving the proposal a small introduction to each chapter is needed.

1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Title that describes your analysis
4. Conclusion

Notes
For further explanation of a certain topic notes can be used.

Select Bibliography
Bibliography lists out the complete list of sources and matter that will be used in the study.

The quantitative method has the following format:

Tentative Title
Introduction
Aim and Objective
Methodology and Limitation (The most important aspect of a quantitative study, the methods to be used to conduct the study need to be explained as well as the limitations)
Literature Review
Research Question
Chapter Division
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Title that describes your analysis
4. Conclusion
Notes
Select Bibliography

Different universities across India follow their own format for research proposal. Some examples can be found from the links mentioned below:

http://www.simc.edu/dr_research.aspx

http://www.tiss.edu/Admissions/entrance-process.php

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/18581885/research-proposal---University-of-Cape-Town--Welcome

http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/politics/postgraduate/research/proposal/

Our regular class was on the topic of interviews. The following points were discussed

• Conducting an interview (how, when, whom)
• Limitations of an interview
• Question format (open ended, close ended questions, direct and indirect interview)
• Format of the interview

Power relations determine how the interviews turns out to be. For Example-If the interviewee is present in the news studio then the interviewer is the one in power. If the interviewee is in one’s own house then the interviewee is in power. Post editing the final version reported or aired in the media is exactly the way the interviewer wants it to be. It is interviewer’s interview but unknowingly the interview is constructed. Interview is of two types: the modern and the post modern. While the above mentioned four points fall under a modern type of interviewer, the power relations fall under a post modern type where the interviewer is both self critical and self aware. The post modern interviewer is aware about the power relation in an interview and all the types of prejudices.

Limitations of an interview: Limitations can be ranging from personal point, regional or even nationality. An Indian doing a study on Indo Pak relations may find his nationality to be a limitation for an unbiased evaluation of the project.

Ethics to be followed in an interview method:
• Inform the interviewee on the reasons behind the interview
• Consent of the interviewee should be taken whether his voice can be recorded or not
• Consent of the interviewee is needed to mention the name of the source if needed
• Use data in the way its supposed to be used

Few examples of ethical situations that could arise during your interview:
• The interviewee should be assured of their own confidentiality.
• If the interviewee becomes distressed, the interview should be abandoned.
• The interviewee has the right not to answer a particular question or to terminate the interview altogether.
• It is crucial that you obtain informed consent before commencing the interview.
• If the interviewee asks for practical guidance or help, you must refer them to an appropriate organization or support centre. Do not allow yourself to be drawn into this type of discussion. If your interview concerns information of a particularly sensitive nature, it might be worth getting the details of relevant organizations beforehand, should you be asked.
Source: http://ro.uwe.ac.uk/RenderPages/RenderLearningObject.aspx?Context=6&Area=1&Room=3&Constellation=25&LearningObject=122


The above discussed points on interview were taken from the book:
Griffin, Gabriele.ed. Research Methods For English Studies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005

Definition of Politics

Definition of Politics (Source, www.websters-dictionaryonline.com/definition/politics)

Politics is the study of decision making power (who has got it and who hasn't) from intersocial and societal level). When considered at smaller scales e.g, within a profession it is indistinguishable from applied ethics or specialist ethical codes.

At whatever scale politics is rather imperfect way that we actually do coordinate individual actions for mutual or (strictly personal gain). What distinguishes politics from ethical or merely social is a much debated question. Most theorist would acknowledge that to be political a process has to involve atleast use of some potential force or -politics is about conflict that is much more than theory and fashion. To win a political conflict always implies that one has taken power from one group of power to give it to another. Most would also acknowledge that political conflict can degrade to zero-sum games with little earned or settled by conflict other than, " who won and who lost".

Lenin said that politics was ,"who could do what to whom". As political scientist Harold Lasswell said," who gets what, when and how". It also concerns how we resolves moral conflicts that are sufficiently serious that they constitute the risk of social disruption- in which case committment to common process of arbitration or diplomacy tends to reduce violence- usually viewed as key goal of civilization. Bernard Key is the major theorist of this view and also of the idea that politics is itself simply," ethics done in public", where public institutions can agree, disagree, or intervene to achieve a desirable culmination or comprehensive result.

In addition to Government, journalist, religious groups, special interest gropus and economic system and condition may all have influence on decisions. Therefore, politics touches on all these subjects.

Authors of studies of politics have both reflected and influenced the political system of the world. Machiavalli wrote The Prince, an analysis of politics, in a amonarchy in, 1513, while living in a monarchy. Karl Marx and Fredrich Engel wrote, Communist Menifesto in 1848 which became one of the most influential work of twentieth Century.

Personally, I subscribe to Bernard Key's theory about politics, a view which subscribes to the process of fair decision making which aids in reducing/eliminating conflict, violence and hurt.

Sean Carroll on the arrow of time (Part 1) | Video on TED.com

Sean Carroll on the arrow of time (Part 1) | Video on TED.com

Politicals of Knowledge Production and Ethnographic Methods

Did you know... that most Research Method theories or knowledge fields come from larger politico, historical contexts?

• like most psychology tests were done during the Vietnam war
• World war II brought dramatic changes to clinical psychology
• that the Internet was first used to compute details of the U.S Army and therefore for the use of defence
• Language teaching has all it's methods in War. Communicative method comes from the time of Vietnam war
• that the history of Dental sciences can be traced back to Nazi camps,where Jews were experimented upon, mercilessly and without their consent
• the entire field of pesticides emerges from World War II
• Fort Detrick in Maryland was the headquarters of US biological warfare experiments. Operation Whitecoat involved the injection of infectious agents to observe their effects in human subjects
• Also there have been and still are numerous human experiments that performed in the US, which have been considered unethical, and were often performed illegally, without the knowledge, consent or informed consent of the test subjects and many of these experiments were funded by the US Govt especially the Central Intelligence agency and the US military!

these are just a few examples which go to show that '90% of all research, scientific and otherwise, happens during wars or for purposes of war,' and everything comes from 'Anthropology'.

Anthropology, roughly put, is the study of humans and culture and it was developed during the colonial period where the colonists would look down upon the people in the subservient outlets, having a superior air or notion about themselves. They assumed that the people there were under-developed, less intelligent and incapable of advancement without their help. to help them they needed to gain fundamental knowledge about them and so they studied the natives. They studied their food, clothes, eating habits, mannerisms... not realising, all along, that their interest lay not in the natives development but in their own benefit. It is said that to market a product to a community, study their culture... and that is what they did, under the guise of 'development'. For the natives being studied they may be an already developed lot and may lead content lives and may feel no need for further development. But the scholar may disagree.

And to this day the gap between the knower and the knowee exists. The problem when it comes to research is that you bring in your own framework and it usually is the scholar's perspective.

To study people they used methods that were ethnograpchic. They evolved

• observation
• interview
• surveys and
• structured surveys

And then from Anthropology came Sociology which is by definition the study and classification of human societies. But the uncanny truth remains that when it is the study of people from under-developed Nations of the East, it is Anthropology while when studying people from the developed countries of the West, it is termed as Sociology! Before Independent India, studies here were Anthropology... after Independent India, studies here were Sociology.

Towards the end two interesting points were made by Mr. Pinto... the first one he said 'To look at a country's development take a look at it's educational institutions'.

and the second, he was saying 'Politics is not bad... Power is!' he said each one of us engage in our own political space.

I'd like to pose my thoughts on this statement. The word politics today has a negative connotation to it. Politics is not bad, power is but ironically powerful people control the politics of a Nation. And if each of them are involved in their own political space, who will do things for the greater good?

Types of English Language Teaching (E.L.T.) Syllabi

Following is the lecture notes compiled by Vidya of III JPEng.
-----

Before we get into the types of Syllabi (in English Language Teaching), we must understand some of the basic concepts. They are as follow;

Programme- It is the entire degree one is enrolled for within which plenty of other courses are available. E.g. B.A. which offers you many other courses within it.
Course – is the path one has taken in the programme available such as B.A. in Journalism and so on.
Paper- Course and paper are usually used interchangeably.
Subject -The principal theme, or leading thought or phrase, on which a composition or a movement is based. In educational field it applies to a particular theme or topic within the course. For e.g. Psychology, English etc.
Curriculum- All that one has to do in order to get through a programme to have mastery over it. Many medical colleges for instance ask the students to complete a year of bond before giving them a degree of MBBS or BSc. Nursing.
Syllabus- Which is directly linked to paper/subject of teaching, or description of what is to be learned. It is an outline or a summary of the main points of a text, lecture, or course of study.
Course plan- on the other hand is about ‘how’ to teach that syllabus, what is going to be covered, how much time required and so on.

Syllabi:
Syllabi are positioned into various categories:
1) Procedural syllabus: Where in one decides / explains step by step the development of ideas or learning situations.
2) Cultural syllabus: It assumes that learning habits across the world are not similar. Every culture has a particular way of teaching language. E.g. one trained in India to ‘reproduce’ what is taught finds it difficult to understand and cope with the demand of ‘production’ of knowledge when studying in Europe.
3) Situational syllabus: Structured, but assumption is that if situations are created then learning happens faster.
4) Structured/Formal syllabus: In which there is assumption that one has to introduce language in terms of its complexity.
5) Multidimensional syllabus: This takes care of many situations, not focusing on one dimension of language learning but taking care of all the aspects.
6) Task-based syllabus: In which one looks at the task at hand. Thus there is an assumption that by giving various tasks can lead to learning of many words, vocabularies so on.
7) Process syllabus: Type of syllabi where learners are engaged in evolving the syllabus. However at the end everything is in teacher’s control.
8) Learner-led syllabus: Slightly different from process syllabus, in which learner is constantly interacting with the syllabus.
9) Content based syllabus: In which focus is given on content such as poem, essay, story and so on.
10) Proportional syllabus: a different type of syllabus wherein language is learned in proportion, as in one learns what is required of him in a given situation

Media Research

Today our class started with a recap of the previous class where we had discussed on the topic of mass and masses. Post discussion the topic shifted to Indian culture and selling of foreign products in India. The topic came about on the lines of how Coca Cola is been sold as a thirst quencher in the market, when the same thing can be replaced with water or other beverages such as tea, coffee or lemon water. We elaborated on the topic saying that Coke is sold through indigenization of the product such as portraying it as been associated with happiness and Indian festivals such as Diwali. However the counter argument was that Diwali is part of religious celebrations by Hindus and not necessarily an Indian culture on the whole. The topic was broadened by bringing in the topic of dress code and how most institutions in South India follow a strict dress code for students which is mostly salwar kameez for girls and formals for men. However here again salwar kameez is a North Indian dress. Bhangra has also moved on in the same way. Originally a Punjabi festival it has become extremely popular all across India, even though Bollywood is located in Maharashtra and most actors hail from Uttar Pradesh. So it remains unexplained how Bhangra became so popular among masses blurring regional and state lines. However the fact remains that these examples point to the fact that there is movement of North Indian culture down to the South. Also cultures get carried through products and goods that are sellable.

At the time of choosing the Indian national language, Bengali lost to Hindi by a single vote. Bengali was mooted as a national language because it is more ancient than Hindi. However it’s a pity that Urdu was not taken up more seriously since Urdu as a language is extremely rich though it has fallen prey to been wrongly linked up with Islam. Most great poets and lyricists like Gulzar and Javed Akhtar still write in Urdu.

Media research in India is a copy of what happens in the western countries especially the U.S. It’s based on audience and television research. This might be due the reason that many lecturers in established institutions in India and researchers in the industry have at some point of time been to the US for their studies or pursuing research related material and have gotten exposed and influenced to that particular form of media research.

Over the years the education system in India with regards to the syllabus has changed very little. Take for example journalism schools. The syllabus very much remains the same that was taught a decade back. The media in itself has seen changes in leadership styles. In fact most famous media journalists are not from a journalism background for example Prannoy Roy has done his Phd in Agricultural Economics and Rajdeep Sardesai had studied Economics and Law.

Definition of research remains the same across all disciples. It is termed as being something new, knowledge production and epistemology. Also research in terms of media and communication, differences between method and methodology were further discussed in the class. Method is a particular way of doing something example interview, survey. Methodology is various practices in research that is how you are going to do your research, what you are going to use and the final presentation.

Different types of method includes interview, action research, observation, participant observation, focus group discussion, survey (survey can be based on interview, questionnaire and online questionnaire), psychoanalysis, marxist analysis, semiotics, discourse analysis, content analysis, queer analysis. There are hardly any books on research methods for media studies. Mr. Pinto is also thinking of writing a book on the same, one that can be used in various colleges by students pursuing research in media. Waiting for the book…

Pooja Basnett
M.Phil

media research in India - critical reflections

Mr. Pinto’s first class of semester II, M.phil Media Studies, research methodologies in media, was a short class and dealt with the analytical power of the audiece.

Mr.Pinto started with the fact that research in media in India is all about audience survey. Also the research knowledge available in India is largely influenced by the U.S. So there arises a requirement of more theories for studying media itself and less of an audience survey.

Mr. Pinto went on to discuss the word ‘mass’ on how it suggests that the recipients of media products constitute a vast sea of passive, undifferentiated individuals, and how Stuart Hall, one of the leading cultural theorists, challenged the tem mass. Hall brought in agency or the analytical power of the audience. He says the message does not reach the reciever unaltered. The message reaches the audience after passing a series of codes. The message from the encoders is transformed at every point, because we as individuals are tuned into following traditions. We have been taught codes and therefore look to apply what we have been taught in practically everything. Eg; while writing a news article we invariably tend to follow the inverted pyramid style because we have been taught to!

The magic bullet theory holds no good anymore because each individiual percieves a message differently. But that is the final stage, before it reaches the audience the message undergoes numerous transformations, under the story writer’s hand, under the camera person’s hand, under the editor’s hand and more. And then the way the audience indivually takes to it differs from person to person.

So in such a society as today where each man thinks differently and percieves things differently, a collective audience survey is not good enough, calling out for more research work in India studying the media itself.

SEPHIS Fellowship

The Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) offers a fellowship awarded by SEPHIS to a student from any country in the South to spend one academic year in Bangalore, India, beginning July 2010.

The main purpose of the fellowship programme is to help develop alternative frameworks for research and teaching as well as new theoretical paradigms that take into account the specific experiences of non-Western societies.

The student can either register with CSCS for the Ph.D. in Cultural Studies (validated by the Manipal University and Kuvempu University) or register in his/her own country and do the CSCS coursework for two semesters.

The Ph.D. programme's uniqueness lies in the following:

o Focus on inter-disciplinarity
o Emphasis on the formulation of research problems and teaching programmes in relation to development, democracy and cultural issues that draw on conventional disciplines but cut across their boundaries.

Research areas at CSCS include:
o Culture and Colonial histories; Law and Society; Higher Education; Gender Studies; Social Justice; Psychoanalysis; Culture and Rights; Cultural policy; Culture industries; Film and Popular Culture; Political Studies; Theorising the Region (focus on the Indian Ocean and Southern India); Science, Technology and Society Studies.

The following are the ongoing research programmes at CSCS with which students may also be associated (for a description of these programmes, please visit programme pages on the CSCS website: www.cscsarchive.org):

o Culture: Industries and Diversity in Asia (CIDASIA)
o Law, Society, Culture
o Higher Education
o Culture, Subjectivity and Psyche: Rethinking Mental Health (CUSP)

Eligibility: A Master’s Degree in any discipline with 55% marks or its grade equivalent if the student is registering with CSCS for the PhD., or proof of Ph.D. registration in any Southern university outside India if the student is coming only for coursework.

Benefits: A substantial stipend, international airfare, accommodation in Bangalore, travel costs for three weeks within India for visits to different academic institutions, tuition and other fees will be provided for. If the student registers for a PhD at CSCS, financial support available after the first year will be at par with that of other CSCS students.

Current CSCS faculty are drawn from the fields of film and media studies, political theory, history, and art history, gender studies, psychoanalytic and legal theory and science studies with a strong background in inter-disciplinary cultural studies. Applicants are requested to visit the CSCS websites for more information of the institution, its faculty, courses, library, etc: www.cscsarchive.org

To apply: Applications should include a sample of writing such as a term paper, a current CV, two letters of recommendation, transcripts of last two degrees obtained, and proof of eligibility.

Write to Dr. Anup Dhar, Convenor, Academic Committee, Centre For The Study Of Culture And Society, No. 827, 29th Main Road, Poornaprajna HSBC Layout,

Uttarahalli, Bangalore - 560 061

Email: anup at cscs.res.in

Telephone: 91-80-26423268

Fax: 91-80-26423002

Deadline: Complete applications must reach CSCS by April 10, 2010. E-mail and fax applications are acceptable only if followed by a hard copy sent by airmail or courier. Candidates will be informed of the outcome by April 15, 2010. The CSCS academic year begins in the last week of July. In case of delays related to visa procedures, selected applicants may also officially begin their coursework in the following semester beginning January 2011.

MPhil – Applied Linguistics Course Plan

Session 1 : Introduction to Linguistics – history

Session 2 : Phonetics – 17 Feb

Session 3 : Morphology – Word formation 18 Feb

Session 4 : Morphology – Derivational and Inflectional 24 Feb

Session 5 : Syntax– 25 Feb

Session 6 : Syntax -3 Mar

Session 8 : SALA – Introduction 4 Mar

Session 9 : SALA – Language families 10 Mar

Session 10 : sociolinguistics 11 Mar

Session 11 : Neurolinguistics 17 Mar

Session 12 : Clinical linguistics 18 Mar

Session 13 : Language and brain 24 mar

Session 14 : Language acquisition

Session 15 : Translation- A History

Session 16 : Linguistic theories of translation

Session 17 : Linguistic theories of translation

Session 18 : Translation Studies after the theory turn

Session 19 : Translation Studies – contemporary concerns

Session 20 : Retrospection

Note:

• Each session is of two hours duration.
• Sessions 2 to 14 will be taught by Deepti
• Sessions 1 and 15 to 20 will be taught by Anil

CIA I - Observation of the language acquisition process in children from the age-group 11/2 to 6 years. Report - 20 pages (Further instructions will be given in the classroom.

CIA II - Socio-linguistics- Observation of language behaviour and change in your society

CIA III – Translation studies – Presentation and reports on essays. A short research paper of about five pages.