A Review of Far From Home: Confessions of a Foreign Student by Douglas Waudo

Following is the review of the book Far From Home: Confessions of a Foreign Student by Douglas Waudo. Dauglas was my student for two years. In his first year of BA i had come to know that he wanted to write a novel and i remember asking him to read Things Fall Apart which was written by Chinua Achebe as a BA student. I also vaguely remeber the inspiration to write was his sister who had passed away in Bombay after suffering of cancer for a long time, if my memory serves me right. By the time he reached the third year I had left the college. But he had managed to complete the novel by then. Prof Lourdusamy, the publisher of the book had sent a copy for review. It was later published in two websites from Africa. Thought should archive it in my blog. I have taken it form the website www.advance-africa-forum.com. - http://www.advance-africa-forum.com/archive/index.php?t-447.html. Here it goes.....
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Far From Home: Confessions of a Foreign Student by Douglas Waudo

A Review by Anil Pinto, Lecturer, Department of Media Studies, Christ College, Bangalore University, India.

Far from Home is a tale of ‘the lives, hopes, worries, fears, experiences, guilty pleasures, mistakes and lessons learnt’ of the Kenyan students studying in India. Through its protagonist, Raymond Wasike, it brings out multiple facets of the lives of foreign students, especially the African students in India. Ray who comes from Nairobi full of dreams and ambitions gets drawn into the complex life that almost all the overseas students perhaps get introduced to. Despite his strong will and determination to fulfill his purpose of coming to India, Ray becomes a prodigal son, drops out of college, becomes a drug trafficker and even gets arrested for rape. The novel ends in Ray longing for a new life, without of course trying to reject the past although he thinks ‘that chapter in his life had nothing good or worthy written on it’.

The title Far from Home is polyphonic with pun in it. Although the ‘land of dreams and aspirations’ tries to reassure, it can never be another home or a home-away-from-home as there is no lasting concern beyond the need for recognition. In the absence of a caring family the system that tries to fill the void only destroys the individual. It is also a place that is far away from the homeland, Kenya. The subtitle of the novel Confessions of a Foreign Student indicates the theme, which at one level is very Christian in nature. It is a confession and therefore demands forgiveness and understanding. The last is one of the important objectives of the novelist himself. Although the word ‘foreign’ could have been replaced by the politically correct term ‘overseas’, the retention of the word makes the title ironic. The students are perhaps treated as foreign, despite their stay for as long as five years. The novel portrays a complex insight into the world of Kenyans in India and the west coast of India in particular.

The life that is projected in the novel is very fragile. In the absence of the traditional family control, the life gets easily controlled by forces outside oneself. However, the novel is one of hope. Ray can always think of going back to his family and beginning life afresh. The world view of the novel is traditional Christian. Family is the ultimate institution an individual can confide in.

Unlike most Eurocentric narratives this novel is as much about the struggle of a family as of an individual. The novel also offers interesting insights into how African constructs and views India. We have been by and large concerned with the image in the West of India. Whereas this novel offers a vital point of view of Africa, which the Indian intelligentsia has by and large refused to take note of.

The writing of the novel is driven by a vision for the future of the African students studying in India, and a passion to tell the tale in a convincing manner to initiate change. Keeping with its purpose, the novel calls for a change in the way educational institutions have seen the ‘foreign’ students. One perhaps requires to take recourse to more accountable systems on the part of the educational institutions towards the parents of these ‘foreign’ students.

In author’s own words the novel makes ‘an interestingly informative, educative and entertaining reading’ with its modern-day tale of prodigal sons and daughters of Africa in India. It is a voice from the margins of Mangalore.

One needs to appreciate the efforts of Prof Lourdusamy who has consistently and many a time alone tried to foster the creativity of students through many such publications such as Al-Buds and Blooms which were anthologies and now a novel, a first time in the 125 year history of St. Aloysius College.

Resistence to Blogs. A response

I had posted the following write-up in 'ictineducation' gmail group on 28 Nov 2005 following a National Seminar on ICT Technology in Higher Education held at Mahatma Gandhi College Trivendrum/Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala in Nov 2005. I had presented a paper on blogs in education there which attracted stimulating/emotional/resisting discussion. This long reply was an attempt to address the issues that came up after my presentation. Of course, as is the norm in most of these cyber forums there were no responses to this.

"I wish to respond to some of the questions raised at the workshop
following my presentation on blogs.

Mr Alwyn D'Sa's enquiry as to how blogs ensured that the lazy
students submitted the given assignments.
My reply: The concept and the nomenclature 'lazy students' does not
exist in the ELT discourse. The issue is not one of being politically
correct in the usage of words, but one of approach. I see
non-submission of assignments as a case of low motivation or lack of
interest on the part of students owing to other external factors. The
way out would be to find out the cause and remedy it. Apart from this
there are institutional factors which most of the time ensure that the
students/learners do their job irrespective of the problem they face. A
blog in itself cannot do anything as it is a tool or a medium, a unique
one at that. My experiment with blogs was to take assignments to the
doorstep of my students or to the places of their comfort, utilizing
the unique possibility that blogs offered. Medium itself is a message.
And therefore the assignments given through blogs and the blog as a
medium itself will change the way a learner perceives learning. For
example the assignment posted on my blog for BBM students. No other
medium will enable such creativity in giving an assignment.

Honourable chairperson's comment on the necessity of looking at the
cost factor. Also his statement "A chalk is a luxury in a government
college".
My reply: The cost factor works quite differently here. If you look at
the other possibilities discussed like the use of movies, radio,
cartoon they do not require any investment on the part of the students.
Whereas the use of blog, both by the learner as well as the teacher,
does. If the institution does not have a free internet facility to view
blogs, then the students need to have the connection at home or need to
go to an internet browsing centre. Both these involve investment on the
part of the students. I agree. But, for the teacher if s/he has the
internet connection at College, the person can manage it without
spending money. Or, if the person has an internet connection at home
then s/he does not have to spend extra for the sake of blogs. Even if
the teacher spends Rs 10 for half an hour (this is the average tariff
in most parts of our country) per week it will be about Rs 40 per month
and Rs 480 per year. Which I don't think is much for a lecturer who
is drawing UGC or state government scale. This reasoning holds good, if
an undergraduate teacher has inclination to reach out to the students
through the cyberspace.

"A chalk is a luxury in a government college" is no argument at all
to question the feasibility of using the internet to reach out to
learners. The question is one of interest on the part of the teachers.
(I am not saying that one must have interest and must make use of the
internet/cyberspace as if it were a panacea) Developing infrastructure
is of course a challenging task in institutions which have serious
resource crunch. But it is no impossible task. There are various
sources that need to be tapped namely UGC, different central/state
government projects, alumni/ae, IT companies both big and small which
dispose off their PCs when they go for upgrading their infrastructure,
donors, benefactors, and local MLAs and MPs who have local area
development funds. It requires effort. But it pays to take that extra
step. I can cite innumerable example of my friends and myself where a
lot of money was spent from the personal kitty even with the meagre
salary which we used to get in the initial years of our teaching.

At last, I need to clarify my position.
1. The whole concept of blogs as I presented and as I am experimenting
with, is different from most other possibilities for creativity. The
basic difference is that a blog can be used more as an extension of a
classroom and a class away from classroom- the virtual classroom. Most
of the possibilities with technology largely talk about classroom
practice, without considering the cost, gadget failure, infrastructure
availability, technical know-how required for teacher and the time
available. For example, Use of movies especially clipping requires
editing. Where is the facility. Or to show full length movies one
requires TV sets as well as cassette, VCD/DVD players, uninterrupted
power supply. Giving worksheets involves huge photocopying cost apart
from more pressure on depleting green cover/forests. With the little
time, normally 45 to 55 minutes, that is available and the vast
syllabus to be taught to what extent can a teacher try these
possibilities?
2. I am not of the view that it is time everybody shifted to blogs and
the cyberspace. Or that it is an answer to all the problems that
ESL/EFL classes face. I present blogs as another possibility,
especially under the changing socio-economic profile of the students.
It is also to be noted that the PC penetration is far more than that of
TV or radio in the institutes of higher education in India
3. I feel that making use of blogs will empower the students in the era
of information technology. There is far lesser chance of teachers of
other disciplines taking the initiative to initiate the students to the
cyber world. A very crucial question to ask is why are we teaching
English? For the sake to teaching it? If it is for the sake of teaching
it then it serves no purpose at least for the learners. English is now
used and is increasingly going to be used for 'faceless
communication'. The employability of the students will depend on
their ability to use English via emails, telephones and such other
telecommunication media. Use of the cyberspace will enable the students
to use English with its practical implications. It is in this
background that I propose the experiments with blogs.

. The discussion that happened after the presentation was very useful
to me in terms getting more conceptual clarity. I thank all those who
actively took part in it both during the session and during the tea
break. I will be very happy if this discussion continues and will be
pleased to answer any queries regarding my own views as well as blogs."

Cultural Studies Final paper clarifications

A few clarifications regarding the research paper.
To reduce your work esp at this critical period i thought i will drop the peer review part. Of course i will have do some explaining to the office. Will take care of that.
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I FEP SUMMER INTERNSHIP – APRIL, MAY 2008 Guidelines

I FEP SUMMER INTERNSHIP – APRIL, MAY 2008

Guidelines for the group assigned to me:

• 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 2008.

• 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

06 March 2008 Anil Pinto

------------------All the best------------------

A note from Abhaya that was sent on 7 April 2009.

• the internship diaries are over; so do not pay at the office and come with a receipt for the diaries. maintain a 50 page book as your diary. write the daily activities, date, and get it signed by your mentor in the organization; do not forget this task; you may not be able to remember everything you did during your internship
• show interest in work and get some work; this is the time when you get your contacts and test your own ability to work with professionals
• do not forget to get appendix; if you are unable to get some evidence contact your guide, so that alternatives could be worked out before you finish your internship and return empty handed and land in trouble
• mail your guides once a week; it would be easy for them to suggest things if you are in contact regularly; regular contact with the guide has 5% marks

Enjoy your internship. Come back with fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

Rethinking Community through Crash

Rethinking Community through Crash

Anil Joseph Pinto

Dept of Media Studies, Christ College, Bangalore

(Paper presented at the National Seminar on Psychology and Cinema at Christ College, Bangalore on15 Feb 2007)

Crash winner of three academy awards for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing in 2005, has had interesting circulation among film buffs and social science classrooms both in the host country and many countries across the globe, including India. The film has attracted considerable discussion on the race issue as well the portrayal of race in the cinematic media in academic journals and film portals alike. This paper intends to look at some of those debates and tries to take the debate to another location - community - with an intension of opening up new questions for psychology within the limits of this paper and time.

Roger Ebert, one of most celebrated Chicago Sun-Times reviewer, gave four-star rating saying, “Crash tells interlocking stories of Whites, Blacks, Latinos, Koreans, Iranians, cops and criminals, the rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless, all defined in one way or another by racism … I believe anyone seeing it is likely to be moved to have a little more sympathy for people not like themselves” (2005). While Ebert is pleased with the film for the kind of ‘positive’ sensitivity that the film will build in the viewers, a host of scholars, especially Black, engaged with issues related to race and multiculturalism, have begged to differ trying to throw light on the way the film only goes to reinforce the existing Hollywood stereotypes of non-whites. David Holmes argues that “Crash complicates the moral facets of ethnic and racial biases while simplifying the material structures that cause and perpetuate these biases.” (2007:318). Joyce Irene Middleton agrees with him when he says, “I felt disappointed and frustrated by the film’s use of surface, sketchy characters; its failed attempt to challenge racial stereotypes, especially as most people of color (raced people) would recognize them; and its dominant pedagogical fallacy; that everybody’s a little bit prejudiced.” (2007:321). The absence of redemption for the Asian characters has also been foregrounded by quite a few critics. (Prendergast, 2007)

However, despite the significant issues of representation that these critics bring out, it is important to note the centrality that this visual text assumes to engage with the various sociological and political questions in the public domain. One important domain that I wish to open up is the concept of community this visual text allows to problematise.

Classical sociology has largely viewed communities as “closed collectivities or traditional groupings in which the questions of individual choice did not matter … [and where C]ommunities prioritized norms and value of the collectivity over the individual.” (Jodhka, 2001: 18). To these characteristics Nisbet (1967:5) adds “high degree of personal intimacy, emotional depth, moral commitment, social cohesion, and continuity in time.” Continuity, cohesion, boundedness and adherence to tradition are other features that are ascribed to a community. (Upadhaya: 2001:33).

A close look at these notions of community seems to be positing community as the other of individual. However, recent scholarship in cultural studies has shown that the historically community comes to be constructed as the other of capital and not as the other of the individual. These constructions throw up serious challenges for theorization when the community is no more out there or as constructed community makes a claim to capital.

Crash, with its narrative involving multiple racial groups and mixed racial characters coming together under one statist political entity, poses challenges to the narrative of community as closed collectivities beyond individual questions. The state itself functions through a complex assimilation of Blacks, Whites, Latinos who are constantly struggling to belong, not precisely knowing where – because of their positions or lineages. Hence, Graham Waters, does not really want to own up his race and is thrilled by having sex with a ‘white’ lady.

When the film begins it seems to be constructing itself as a community of Los Angeles – a fragmented one at that - as against other communities. The film opens with Waters’ voice over, “In LA nobody touches you, always behind metal and glass. I think we miss the touch so much that we crash into each other so that we can feel something.” However, most characters seem to completely ignore this imagination. Farhad will insist on his right to buy the gun by asserting his American citizenship. He says, “I am an American citizen.” He also does not own up the Arab identity as he is a Persian. Both Kim Lee, the Korean lady, and Shaniqua Johnson, the doctor’s secretary and the black lady who picks a fight over the last car crash, stress on their identity more on the linguistic lines, emphasizing their ability to “speak English” or “speak American.” The Korean will sell his fellow Asians not in anyway trying to own up the Asian as a community identity. Anthony and Peter will go out and rob the Blacks. Cameron does not wish to be identified with the Black community.

Thus the film takes us beyond the simple constructions of community to those of complex play of power and dominance. The constructions of community based on race, geographical location or common political entity now become categories difficult to work with or, to use Jean-Luc Nancy’s concept, they become “inoperative communities.”

Given this inadequacy of the concept of community, what happens to the disciplines in social sciences including psychology, for which community is one of the fundamental concepts around which huge body of knowledge and practice exists? Will it lead to a fundamental rethinking of these disciplines and their practices, especially Community Psychology?

Reference

Cheadle, Don et al (Producer), & Haggis, Paul. (Director). (2005) Crash. [Motion Picture] United States: Lions Gate Films, DEJ Productions, & Bob Yari Productions.

Ebert, Roger. “Crash” May 5, 2005 http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/ 20050505/REVIEWS/50502001/1023

Holmes, David G. (2007) The Civil Rights Movement According to Crash: Complicating the Pedagogy of Integration. In College English 69 (4), 314-320.

Jodhka, Surinder S. (2001) Introduction. Surinder S Jodhka (Ed). In Community and Identities: Contemporary Discourses on Culture and Politics in India. New Delhi: Sage.

Middleton, Joyce Irene. (2007) Talking about Race and Whiteness in Crash. In College English 69 (4), 321- 334.

Nancy, Jean-Luc. (1991). The Inoperative Community. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press,

Nisbet, R. (1967). Sociological Traditions. London: Heinemann.

Prendergast, Catherine. (2007). Asians: The present Absence in Crash. In College English 69 (4), 347-348.

Upadhya, Carol. (2001). The Concept of Community in Indian Social Sciences: An Anthropological Perspectives. In Surinder S Jodhka (Ed), Community and Identities: Contemporary Discourses on Culture and Politics in India New Delhi: Sage.

Human Rights and Media

Human Rights and Media

Anil Pinto

Dept of Media Studies, Christ College (Autonomous), Bangalore

Media has been entrusted with the responsibility of guarding the rights of the people in a democratic political system. This points towards the pivotal role that media can play in ensuring that the people who make a political system enjoy its positive outcome. However, it is important to come out of the visionary discourse of media and critically look at its role and function in our present socio-political context.

This paper tries to focus on three issues: role of media in protecting and promoting human rights, media as the cause for violation of human rights, and lastly, media as the mediator in rethinking human rights. The paper will also attempt to problematise the existing discourse of human rights and media. The word ‘media’ in this paper refers largely to mainstream media.

Media as the promoter of human rights in India

Since media are the eyes and ears of any democratic society, their existence becomes detrimental to the sustenance of all democratic societies. Unless a society knows what is happening to it and its members, the question of protecting or promoting rights does not emerge. Hence, it is in fulfilling this function that media justifies its existence.

No doubt in India, media especially the print, has played an important role in educating and informing citizens of their rights as well as the violations of such rights. One cannot forget that the origin of newspapers in India itself lay in challenging the denial of rights. Hicky’s Bengal Gazette was begun in 1780 to challenge the autocratic rule of the East India Company. Of course, James Augustus Hicky paid dearly for fighting for the rights and against their violations. In South India, The Hindu, we are given to understand, constantly attracted the wrath of the then British government, because it drew attention of the readers to the gross violation of people’s dignity and rights. In the post – independence India too the newspapers have constantly attracted the anger of and harassment by the governments for trying to take the truth to the people. Significant section of the national press has dared to oppose events that have changed the course of history in India – Emergency, Babri Masjid demolition, murder of Graham Steins and his children, the Godhra carnage, and recently Nandigram.

However, one cannot forget that for much of the press, the rights of the dalits, women, rural poor, urban poor, and workers in the unorganised sector increasingly remained outside the purview of human rights. Further, only the human rights violations by the state against the middle class became violations of human rights for media.

Media as promoter of human rights violations

Although it sounds paradoxical, it is true that contemporary media driven by numbers is increasingly becoming a cause for violations of human rights. Media is not only a witness but also a promoter of violence. The then India Today reporter Shyam Tekwani involved in covering Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) operations in Sri Lanka took photographs of the Indian soldiers captured and killed by the LTTE only to realise they used to mutilate the bodies because he would click the photographs. During the 1992 riots, ‘mobs’ burnt more houses and other building in order to create spectacle for the photographers. The Taliban in Afghanistan has also gone on to burn the dead bodies and mutilate them in order to get better publicity through the so called foreign journalists. A lot of child welfare NGOs in India have spoken about how European and American documentary film makers have subjected street children to inhuman conditions to get better visual impact.

Communally insensitive reporting in the name of truth has not only claimed a number of innocent human lives, but also created and perpetuated numerous stereotypes.

The way media harassed and treated Sabeel’s pregnant wife in Bangalore calls for serious reconsideration of media as fourth estate.

The above instances demand a close and serious questioning of numerous media practices which violate or cause human rights violations.

Rethinking human rights and the role of media

Contrary to the belief that human rights are an uncontested terrain, there is a vibrant history of challenging them. The questioning has been there right from the time of the conception of human rights to the post-globalised world. The momentum perhaps built up with signing of trade related treaties by the ‘developing and third word countries’ which expedited the process of globalisation and the emergence of postnational societies.

The most important critique of human rights has been, what Upendra Baxi calls, ‘authorship,’ in other words human rights have been seen as ‘the gift of the West to the rest’. He says that the while such a metanarrative has disabled ‘any intercultural, multi-civilisational discourse on the genealogy of human rights, it has also imparted ‘a loss of reflexivity in the terms of intercultural learning, for the Euro American traditions (Baxi, 2002).

Post-GATT, many thinkers see human rights as the strategy of neo-colonialism to further the economic and political interests of the ‘first’ world countries. As Susan Kosy argues “Neocolonial strategies of power are increasingly articulated … through a new universalist ethics of human rights, labor standards, environmental standards, and intellectual property rights (Koshy, 1999).”

While such claims are valid one needs to pay attention to the politics of claims which have significant consequences in the modern-day postcolonial societies. I wish to draw attention to only three such issues.

First, there are conceptual problems in the ‘authorship’ metanarrative. Such a conceptualisation denies the historical experience to a society and does not acknowledge that the present is transformed and acted upon by modernity, thereby proposing a sanitised and linear culture, denying the plurality of culture and societies. By so doing, such claims also land them into the same trap of non-self-reflexivity that they accuse the West of. Through such claims there is also a greater danger of hampering inter-cultural learning for a culture. The claim also does not take into account the fact that with the eleventh hour exit by the US from being a part of shaping UDHR, the UDHR became socialist in its outlook, incorporating many a concern of the third world nations.

Second, it is important to see who is articulating such claims. In the last two decades one notices that such claims have been increasingly voiced by Hindutva organisations in India, and dictatorial regimes in the neighbouring countries in Asia and Africa which have a record of human rights violations themselves. Baxi says, “the originary stories about human rights equip dictatorial regimes in the Third World to deny wholesale, and in retail, even the most minimal protection from human rights violations and serves such regimes with an atrocious impunity of power (Baxi, 2002). In India such claims hide the pre- and post - independent nationalist politics of creating a homogenous Hindu identity, at the cost numerous communities and cultures within the subcontinent. This also masks the larger political equation that Nandi and many other scholars have pointed out of -Indian =Hindu = upper caste male Hindu.

Third, human rights discourse emerges in the mid-twentieth century in the background of the experience of the two World Wars, the fear of nation-states exploiting their subjects. However, with globalisation multinational corporations becoming more powerful than nation-states, shouldn’t there be a serious rethinking of human rights? If one has a look at the instances of protest against violations of human rights in India, they have largely been against the violations of human rights by the state. However, there is hardly any protest against the violation of human rights by the MNCs, who are mostly invisible in our imagination of human rights violations.

It is in this context that I propose for the media a newer role. Media needs to develop a critique of existing frameworks human rights, and develop a plural and more nuanced discourse of human rights in the public domain.

Rethinking media

Media has largely become mass information rather than mass communication. Media needs to communicate with the governments, NGOs, human rights activists and the public the critical discourse of human rights and the violations. May be a paradigm shift is required to look at media communication as community interaction rather than mass communication. Such a shift would then justify the sacred role that media has been called upon to play. If the media does not take up the role of enabling protection of human rights of the citizens, then it would become an accomplice to the violation of human rights.

However, since media cannot be completely trusted, thanks to the changes brought about by the economic and political developments, especially post liberalisation, we need to strengthen advocacy groups, citizen groups and media watch groups.

Due to various historical reasons our imagination of media has largely been dominated by print media. With print media increasingly losing its foothold in forming public opinion, there is a pressing need to look at recent developments in new media, especially the cyberspace, and mobile phone convergence and the consequent possibilities, to engage with discourses of human rights through these media.

Media is increasingly getting concentrated in the hands of a few. While such a concentration will reduce media spaces for plural voices, they also make such voices look non-significant. With media becoming and industry, and profits becoming a priority, audience, who are increasingly referred to as ‘eyeballs,’ become merely numbers to determine the amount of advertisement revenue that will flow into the organisation.

While media has played a significant role in the promoting the cause of human rights in India, it has largely been by the print medium. There is an increasing need for the various other media which have emerged post-independence to also engage with the discourse of human rights. This calls for a departure from our own obsession with print medium as the medium, with marginal inclusion of news-based television channels. There is also a critical need to engage with and problematise the present binary discourse of human rights as well as the conception of mass media. An inquiry and experimentation with alternative ownership and communication patterns of media are also the need of the hour.

Reference

Baxi, Upendra. “Two Notions of Human Rights: ‘Modern’ and ‘Contemporary’” in The Future of Human Rights. New Delhi: OUP, 2002. 24-27

Koshy, Susan. “From Cold War to Trade War: Neocolonialism and Human Rights” in Social Text No 58 (Spring, 1999) Duke University Press. 1-5

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Panel discussion on Post-globalisation Media Scene in India

Date: 15 Jan 2008
Time: 10 am to -12.30 pm
Duration: Two and a half hours
Venue: 802, Auditorium Block, Christ College
Participants: Communication Students of Santa Barbara College, California and
Christ College, Bangalore

The panel discussion will have presenters on print, film and television, and radio addressing the post-globalising developments in these media and their consequent impact on the socio-political and cultural imagination of and context in India. Each presenter makes presentations for 20 minutes. There will be two interactive sessions.

Schedule
Introduction : Dr William da Silva (5-10 min)
Print : John Thomas (15 min)
Film and television : Prakash Belawadi (20 min)
Internet : Nishant Shah (20 min)
Discussion (20 min)
Break (10 min)
Postglobalisation and media : Dr William da Silva (20 min)
Overall discussion (30 min)
Conclusion : Dr William da Silva (5-10 min)

Chairperson
Dr William Da Sliva, /wrdsilva at gmail.com/ has taught at Christ College; Universities of Mangalore, Goa and Manipal, India; Universities of Hamburg, and Osnabruck, Germany. He has written and translated over 24 books. Currently the Director of Sandesha Bharati, School of Communication and Konkani Studies, Mangalore. His translation of the Bible from original tongues into Konkani has won the best Bible Translation Award.

Speakers/discussants
John Thomas /john.thomas at christcollege.edu/ is a Professor of Journalism at Christ College, Bangalore. Formerly, Dean, Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media, Bangalore, and Editor (operations) of Vijaya Times. Has worked form major Indian Newpapers and Reuters.

Prakash Belawadi /prakashbelawadi at yahoo.com/ is a journalist, writer, stage & TV director and filmmaker. Presently also the director of the Centre for Film and Drama, Bangalore . His film Stumble won the National award for the best feature film in English in 2003.

Nishant Shah /itsnishant at gmail.com/ is researcher on cyberculture at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore. He has worked as a cybercultural consultant for multinational companies and as an information architect for academic and political organisations in India. He is an expert on Asian Cybercultures.

Anil Pinto
Coordinator

On pedagogy and knowing - Responses to BA II sem Additional English students

I found the discussion that was perhaps fuelled by my remarks about combinations interesting and useful. I must thank all those who contributed to it.

In order not to take the classroom time for clarification from my side and also since we have limited number of hours, I wish to engage with the discussion and questions here.

For me, the debate has thrown up a lot of curious questions on the purpose of English, the purpose of Additional English, pedagogic practices, nature of learning and classroom dynamics.

Let me take up one by one.

What is the objective or purpose of Additional English as a subject? At one level it replaces the so called ‘second’ language – for those who cannot or do not want to take up Kannada, Hindi, French or Tamil. In such a case, the paper fulfils merely the structural requirement. If we accept that as given, then the next question is what is the objective of additional English? The only source for the ‘official’ version is the Book of Syllabus. The objectives as laid down in that book are:
1. To introduce the students to contemporary literature
2. To inculcate literary sensibility/taste among students across curriculum
3. To improve language skills both verbal and written
4. To make students read the text critically (Page 34)

The objectives of the II Semester are “To read the text critically; To be aware of the socio-political and cultural aspects of the text; To enable the students to compare and contrast the different cultures.” (Page 36)

I see that the objectives of the course and the paper clearly indicate that the texts are only contextual to discuss other things and to build the language skills of the students. To that extent my three-hour lectures on notions of text and texualities, growth and development of theatre, student presentation and discussion on travelling, on tense, articles, and alphabet, pronunciation are very much in line with the course and paper expectations.

I use a text to bring out the subtexts in the given text by locating it in contexts. From there I try to introduce and challenge the literary, linguistic and critical abilities of the students. It is important for me that I do not prepare you for exams but take you beyond them. The exam needs are taken care of in the process.

I ask questions, problematise the given answers, delay my own answers so that I can inculcate a sense of questioning in them. It is also an attempt to help students to take charge of their learning rather than looking up to teacher as the repository of all knowledge and learning. Towards this end, I use numerous and subtle techniques. Most importantly, I constantly experiment.

There is always a scope to ask questions. I have tried various ways to make you ask questions, and respond, mostly in vain. But I am not disappointed. Since one is trying these things in a system/structure that has different covert demands, it is an uphill task, and one has to do it because one believes in it, and not because one wants to change the world, or one is hopeful of seeing any significant changes or one is going to be recognised or appreciated for it.

With these clarifications let me assure you that should there be any clarification required you are free to seek it any point of time in the class.

However, I have some expectations from the students’ side. Since you know the syllabus and have all the prescribed texts with you, do come to class having read them. In this semester I have not seen it happening. But do it at least in the rest of the semester. When you read please take the help of a dictionary to find out the meanings of words. Despite that if the meanings are not clear do ask me in the class. However, although I welcome questions, if the student does not do the basic required coursework then it does not speak well of that student.

As far as possible raise your questions in the classroom so that they benefit all your classmates.

If you have any suggestions to me or expectations from my side please email them to me or post them in my blog. I will be quite open to look at them.

This apart, the discussion was interesting because it made me look at more closely the questions like what is learning? What is knowing? What is to understand? How does one know that he/she has understood or learnt or knows something? How are learning, knowing constructed for us? Do we have one construction of it or we keep participating in multiple constructions?

Such moments, as the one I encountered in the last class, make me reflect on my own pedagogic and academic practices. I am grateful to you for that as well.

I wish to see your responses to what I have said above and to the discussion we had in the classroom. So email on … or comment on ....

II Semester BA Additional English - CIA 3

Write a critical analysis of a poem, short story, novel, anthology, play, critical essay, or biography (any one) published not earlier than July 1, 2007. The analysis may be linguistic, literary, semiotic or interdisciplinary. The text has to be in English. If you are analyzing a poem, please submit it along with your assignment. In other cases please keep the book/text ready. I may ask for it, if required.

The write up should be typed in not less than 500 words and printed on A4 size paper with one and a half line space and 12 font size. You may use anyone of the following fonts only: Times New Roman, Garamand, Book Antiqua.

Please write your name, registered number, class, subject, teacher-in-charge on the right hand top corner of the first page. Please do not attach a cover sheet.

The non-extendable date to submit your assignment is 20 January 2008. You may however submit before the last date. In order to avoid confusion please send your assignment through your respective class representatives. Class representatives please maintain a list of all those who submit their assignments.

Please avoid plagiarism. If you are using ideas or lines from books or online sources please cite them. To know how to cite please refer to the post on bibliography writing in my blog (http://anilpinto.blogspot.com/2008/01/bibliography-writing.html). You may however use other formats or evolve your own provided there is consistency and is logical.

Late submissions may not be entertained.

Evaluation Criteria :Critical engagement, language, writing skill.

For any clarification email to anil.pinto at christcollege.edu or enter your questions in the comment section of the blog post below.

Anil Pinto
Dept of Media Studies 09 Jan 2008

Bibliography writing

Bibliography

Recording Essential Publication Information
Book
1. Authors full name (last name first)
2. Full title (including subtitle)
3. Edition (if the book is a second or later numbered edition or a revised edition)
4. Number of volume and total number of volumes (if the book is a multivolume work)
5. City/place of publication
6. Shortened form of the publishers name
7. Year of publication
E.g.:
Budden, Julian. The Operas of Verdi. Rev. ed. 3 vols. Oxford: Claredon, 1992.

Article in a scholarly journal
1. Authors full name (last name first)
2. Title of the article (including subtitle)
3. Title of the journal
4. Volume number
5. Year of publication
6. Inclusive page of the article (i.e. the number of the page on which the article begins, a hyphen, and the number of the page on which the article ends)
E.g.:
Frith, Simon. “The Black Box: The Value of Television and the future of Television
Research.” Screen 41 (2000):33-50.

Newspaper or magazine article
1. Authors full name (last name first)
2. Title of the article
3. Title of the periodical
4. Date of publication
5. Inclusive page of the article

Hoover, Eric. “New Attacks on Early Decision.” Chronicle of Higher Education 11 Jan. 2002: A45-46.

Internet resource:
1. Author’s full name
2. Title of the document
3. Full information about any previous or simultaneous publication in print form
4. Title of the scholarly project, database, periodical, or professional or personal site.
5. Name of the editor of the scholarly project or database
6. Date of electronic publication or last update
7. Name of the institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the site
8. Date when you accessed the source
9. Network address, or URL


E.g.:
Bitel, Lisa M. “St . Brigit of Ireland: From Virgin Saint to Fertility Goddess.” Matrix. Ed. Katherine Gill and Bitel. Feb. 2001. Boston Coll. 23 Jan. 2002 .

Single author
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1991.

Edited book
Baker, Mona. ed. The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Translation Studies. London/ New York: Routledge, 1998.

Two authors
Bassnett, Susan, and Harish Trivedi. eds. Post-colonial Translation: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge, 1999.

More than three authors
Gilman, Sander, et al. Hysteria beyond Freud. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993.

Two books by the same author
Durant, Will, and Ariel Durant. The Age of Voltaire. New York: Simon, 1965.
---. A Dual Autobiography. New York: Simon, 1977.

Work in an anthology
Allende, Isabel. “Toad’s Mouth.” Trans. Margaret Sayers Peden. A Hammock beneath the Mangoes: Stories from Latin America. Ed. Thomas Colchie.

Dictionary ref.
“Noon.” The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989.

Encyclopaedia ref
“Mandarin.” The Encyclopaedia Americana. 1994. ed.

An edition
Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Ed. Claudia Johnson. New York: Norton, 2001.

Second or subsequent edition
Bonderella, Peter. Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present. 3rd ed. New York: Continuum, 2001.

A Film
It’s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell.

A Performance
Hamlet. By William Shakespeare. Dir. John Gielgud. Perf. Richard Burton. Shubert Theatre, Boston. 4 Mar. 1964.

Musical composition
Beethoven, Ludwig van. Symphony no. 7 in A, op. 92.
A painting, sculpture or photograph
Rembrandt van Rijn. Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

A cartoon or comic strip
Chast, Roz. Cartoon. New Yorker 4 Feb. 2002:53.

Online source
“Fresco Paintings” Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 2002. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 8 May 2002

CD-ROM
“Ibn Hamdis.” Encyclopaedia of Islam. CD-ROM. Leiden: Brill, 1999.


Endnotes

Notes share the same information with bibliography but in different form with four main divisions: The author’s name in normal order, followed by a comma; the title; the publication data in parentheses; and a page reference. There is a period only at the end. Notes are numbered consecutively.

E.g.:
1. Debora Tannen, You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation (New York: Morrow, 1990) 52.

Note:
1. Bibliography is written in the alphabetical order.
2. I have taken most of the examples and explanations from MLA Handbook, 6th edition. If you have any further doubts you may please consult the book or get back to me.
3. If you find any mistakes, as they are likely to be there since I typed them myself, please inform me via email.

This is one useful thing you will have leant at the College.
If you find it useful even after you are done with this paper or later in life, do drop a line to tell me so. I will be happy.



Anil Pinto
05 October 2007

Certificate Course in Introduction to Cultural Studies

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Certificate Course in Introduction to Cultural Studies

Duration: Jan to early March

First Class on 12 Jan 2008

Time: 2 pm

Venue: Room 109

You can take the course along with other certificate courses

if it does not clash.

For Further information

Contact: Naresh Rao, or Anil Pinto - Dept of Media Studies

Mail to: anil.pinto at christcollege.edu

Details

Introduction to Cultural Studies

---

• General Introduction:

Cultural Studies is an emerging area of research and teaching that brings in new perspectives to the study of culture and society.

• Topic titles:

The paper covers ten topics, listed below. Each topic requires the student to log on to the course material and also do the required exercises, which will be discussed during the contact programme. The following are the titles of the lessons. The course begins with the introductory session on 12.01.08.

• 1. The Concept of Culture 12.01.08 Introduction and Registration – Anup Kumar Dhar and Zainab Bawa

• 2. Cultural Studies 19.01.08 Ashwin Kumar AP

• 3. Theorizing Culture 25.0108 Zainab Bawa

• 4. Orientalism 02.02.08 Nitya Vasudevan

• 5. Uses of History in Contemporary India 09.02.08 Ashwin Kumar AP

5.. Imagining the Nation 15.02.08 Nitya Vasudevan

• 7. The Identity Question 16.02.08 Zainab Bawa

• 8. Femininity – Masculinity 22.02.08 Nitya Vasudevan

• 9 .The Country and the City 23.02.08 Nishant Shah

• 10. Legal Identity and Culture 01.03.08 Geetanjali Srikantan

2 Day Workshop on ‘Cultural Studies’ at CSCS on the 8^th and the 9^th of March (10 am – 6 pm):

Possible Speakers: Tejaswini Niranjana
Vivek Dhareshwar
S. V. Srinivas
Ashish Rajadhyaksha
Sitharamam Kakarala
Rochelle Pinto
Prasanta Chakravarty
Sruti Chaganti

Screen Play writing / Film Analysis Homework / Assignment 1

Hi
As mentioned in the class today when you come on next Sunday please come with the following work done.

1. Pick two favorite films

• Identify the three acts

• State protagonists state of mind at the start of the story and state of mind at the end of the story.

Example to get you going - Casablance: A tough American expatriate rediscovers an old flame only to give her up so that he can fight the Nazis.

2. Identify a couple of sequences within a film

• Describe them

• Identify character values at start and end (talk about state of mind)

3. Pick a film and identity at least three to four elements of the seven steps form within it.

4. Describe an antagonist (from a film or book) that fascinates you. Explain why.

For any clarification please mail to Darshin Naidu on <darshscript at gmail.com>.

Anil

Cultural Studies Student Presentation

Sejal – Myth Today

Prerna – Introduction: Folk tales of India

Bharat – The postmodern condition

Dhivya – Ideology

Lijoy – Femininity – Masculinity

Aditya – Legal Identity and Culture

Ajay – Imagining the nation

Sudhanva – The Identity question

Amrita – Introduction from CS Reader 3^rd edition

Sheena – Encoding – Decoding

Karuna – The metropolis &mental strife

Nivrithinath – Long bus rides

Glenn – Violence and Translation

Manju – Imagining the nation

Divya – Hyper Architecture

Sinto Mon – The face of the future

B Chacko – Everyday Surveillance: ID cards…

Anu – Blind Intelligence

Thomas – Surveillance after Sep 11, 2001

Ignatius F – The back and white (and grey) of copyright

Aivinor - Urban Transformation & Media Piracy

Prashanth – Obscenity decency and morality

Vineet – Screen Culture

Lily – Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Noby - Urban Action Films

Marina S – Introduction: Indian Popular Cinema as Slum’s…

James – Cine-politics: On the political Significance of Cinema …

Sera Kim – Cyberculture

Harina – Postmodern Virtualities

Jeevan – The network society and organizational change

Rahul M – Identity in the Network Society

Rahul Giri – Thinking Cyber Subjectivity: Ideology and the subject

Nelson – The Network Society and Organizational change

J Kiran