National Seminar on De-stereotyping Indian Body and Desire: Reconsidering the Representations

Call for papers for the U.G.C. Sponsored National Seminar

Organized by

The Department of English

Southfield College

Darjeeling

In collaboration with

The Department of English

St. Joseph’s College

Darjeeling

Date: March 12-13, 2012

on

De-stereotyping Indian Body and Desire: Reconsidering the

Representations

For the most part, postcolonial studies, quite understandably, have privileged the political. Historical and economic processes, forms of identification (race and, to lesser extent, gender) and categories of difference have been refracted through this particular lens. The affective, however, has received scant critical attention. Body, sex and desire are usually allegorized, often standing in as sites of political conflict. Nonetheless, there is an alternative tradition, such as represented in queer and feminist studies as well as in recent work on 'affective communities' and performativity. Notably, feminists, queer theorists, and creative writers such as Mahesh Dattani, or directors like Rituparno Ghosh engage with forms of the affective that incorporate,
exceed, threaten or destabilize the political.

This interdisciplinary conference is an endeavor to bring together into productive confrontation issues of body, love, sex, desire and the postcolonial Indian representations. By drawing together a range of participants and some of the experts in the field, it aims to promote collaborative work between academics, activists, and the non-profit community.

The papers (2000—3000 words) can be based on, but not limited to, the following topics:

Gender, Desire & Sex: Interrogating Mystifications, Stereotypes and Archetypes De-stereotyping efforts in Indian Cinema, Drama, T.V. shows, advertisements, fashion • Desire & the Body: The politics of social bodies; Androgyny in Indian culture and representation

Sex, Politics, Nation and Modernity in (Post)Colonial India
• Erotic Places / Spaces / Literary Representations/ Disruptions of Form, Body and
Landscape
• Ex-Centric Identities: interrogating the categorizations like normal/abnormal, natural/
unnatural desire and body
• Sexual policy, sexual politics/ movements in India
• Counter(acting) and de(constructing) racist and sexist stereotypes
• De-stereotyping sexualities and gender identities through cyber culture
• The Erotic as Power: representations in media (electronic, print) / craft and architecture/
visual and performing arts
• Representations of women’s and men’s bodies in contemporary Indian culture; de-
stereotyping childhood, old age and disability
• Queering India/ Discovery of Indian Queer heritage

Author Guidelines:
PROPOSALS OF 200 – 300 WORDS SHOULD BE SENT WITH
• AUTHOR’S NAME AND DESIGNATION
• INSTITUTIONAL ADDRESS
• A BRIEF BIO-NOTE
• MAIL ID, AND CONTACT NO.
To
kaustavchakraborty2011 AT gmail.com

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS: 15th January, 2012
ACCEPTED PAPERS WILL BE NOTIFIED TO AUTHORS BY: 20th January, 2012
REGISTRATION FOR ACCEPTED PAPERS ALONG WITH THE FULL PAPER MUST REACH
THE CONVENER BY: 27th February, 2012
Registration fee: Rs. 1500 (With accommodation); Rs. 1000 (Without accommodation),
Demand Draft should be drawn in favour of “Southfield College, Darjeeling”.
For postal communication (while sending a copy of the selected paper [full paper] and
the registration form along with demand draft) and also for any queries please contact the
Dr Kaustav Chakraborty

Convener—UGC Sponsored Seminar
Assistant Professor in English
Southfield College
Formerly Loreto College

Post & District : Darjeeling
Pin: 734101
West Bengal
Mobile: 9733184654

A selection of papers will be published after the conference with ISBN
number.

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Recommendation Letter Details

• Those who require recommendation letter from me could you please email me the following details. 
• Those who need letter on University letter head need to get prior permission from the department- Abhaya in the case of CEP and Naresh in the case JPEng 

Once the departments concerned have given their consent you could email me the following details.

• The papers I taught you/ how do I know you (was your class teacher, worked with me on projects) 
•  Semesterwise attendance percentage
•  Academic performance (first class, second class. distinctions, end sem repeat papers )
• Your markswise rank in the class (Among top 10, top 5, top 20 ...)
• The activities you took part on campus and off campus during your studies here (internships, fests, newsletters, cctv, seminars, social work)
• Your career plans
• Your rapport with all your classmates and teachers during your studies at CU
• Your assessment of your personality, abilities (interpersonal relationship, study habits,
• Any specific details I should keep in mind while writing the letter  
• How will the programme you are applying for will help you in your future.

You could write these in points.

A Request
Writing a recommendation takes an hour for me. Hence, in case you do not necessarily need the letter, I would happy if you do not request for one from me. Further, if a letter from other teachers will do, please approach them. Universities in Europe and North America normally ask for letters from one or two teachers. If you already have required number of letters I will be happy if you can count me out.

Having written over 70 recommendation letters, I realise that I need reminders to complete them. Please do bear this in mind when you request for a letter.

National Seminar on “Reading Indias”

Department of English of Christ University 

Is organizing a National Seminar on “Reading Indias” on

20 - 21 of February 2012 

Christ University, Hosur Road, Bangalore.

The Programme will be a platform to understand the working of the social and cultural imaginations of india from multiple perspectives to redefine their productive roles in the construction of the ‘Nation’. It not only encompasses the field of literature but also that of historical philosophy, cultural studies and mass media, and allows the participants to enter into the ‘hybridised’ world with a fresh, analytical and comprehensive approach to read the ‘Indias’ in as many genres. Ben Okri preferred to call it ‘literature of the newly ascendant spirit’ and it is this spirit that is the focus of this seminar. The conference hopes to capture points of convergence and divergence, exploring these matrices.

Through discussions and paper presentations this conference aspires to read the myriad images and visions of India. Papers are invited in the areas of film, drama, music and literature that address these notions. Issues could be about or of India, texts (in the Barthesian sense) by Indians and/or others.

Polyphonic voices of and about “Indias”, the role and function of social and cultural imagination and imaginings,  the  scope  and  history  of  the  Indian subcontinent necessitates a discursive reading. A greater awareness of indigenous communities, first nations and their cultural productions has burgeoned in recent decades. This seminar will negotiate the relations between the past and the present, the canonical and the non-canonical and the national and the trans-national. We endeavour to understand the working of these social and cultural imaginations from multiple perspectives to redefine their productive roles in the construction of the ‘Nation’. It not only encompasses the field of literature but also that of historical philosophy, cultural studies and mass media, and allows the participants to enter into the ‘hybridised’ world with a fresh, analytical and comprehensive approach to read the ‘Indias’ in as many genres. Ben Okri preferred to call it ‘literature of the newly ascendant spirit’ and it is this spirit that is the focus of this seminar. This seminar hopes to capture points of convergence and divergence, exploring these  matrices. 

Your Participation: Through discussions and paper presentations this seminar aspires to  ?read the myriad images and visions of India. 

• Papers are invited in the areas of film, drama, music and literature that address these notions. Issues could be about or of India, texts (in the Barthesian sense) by Indians and  ?others. 
• Students and faculty alike may present, however there will be no awards for faculty.  
• Apart from papers, we also invite you to showcase any presentation or project that you have worked on relevant to our theme. We will accommodate it, as per time schedules  ?and suitability. 
• Please  mail  your  abstracts  (300  words)  by  15th  December  2011  to readingindias AT eng.christuniversity.in.  In  the  subject  line  please  mention  “Seminar 2012”.

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Conference on Dalit Experience and the Question of Marginality

Department of English, University of Delhi

Annual Conference 2012

The Dalit Experience and the Question of 

Marginality

16-18 February 2012

Call for Papers

Recent times have seen a rapid growth of interest in marginality in literary and cultural studies. Marginal cultures  and identities are by definition the ‘other’ of hegemonic cultural formations; their place and plight are always determined by and peripheral to the dominant culture. Typically, Dalits are framed as socially 

frail, politically powerless and economically backward. However, in India, while the nature of traditional caste society does make Dalits a marginalized people, the discourse of marginality needs to be taken in conjunction with the fact that Dalits (along with Bahujans) constitute a majority work force.  Further, the decisive alterations to the public sphere made by an assertion of Dalit political consciousness must be recognized. 

Against this background the Department of English, Delhi University is organizing a conference on “The Dalit Experience and the Question of Marginality” from February 16  – 18, 2012. The conference aims to probe the relation between the public sphere consolidation of Dalit identity and the continued devaluation of Dalit labour. At what point, can these different coordinates of the Dalit experiences be mobilized to constitute a counterhegemonic citizenship? What are the various theorizations of caste reality as it pertains to questions of symbolic and not-so-symbolic acts of violence? What are the limits and possibilities of framing the Dalit question as an identity question? How do we critically examine the institutional practice of Dalit studies especially within the cultural rubric of experience and affect? A core part of our conference intends to open up the question of modernity as imagined by Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar, given that 2012 will see the celebration of his 120th birth anniversary. In so far as the idea of the annihilation of caste remains central to Ambedkar, the embrace of modernity cannot simply be seen in terms of reconciliation. It was envisioned very much as a transformative project. 

Papers can be from any discipline. They should address but not be limited to the 

following topics:

• Theorizing Dalitness: rigorous location in caste versus more open-ended category of the downtrodden.

• Myths of origin: invented or historical proofs of indigeneity which trace Dalit ancestry to the broken men, nagas, rakshashas, adi-dravida, namashudras, Buddhists etc. and the expression of this genealogy in 

contemporary politics.

• Questions of faith: differentiations within a broad Hindu  habitus, relationship with Hindutva and conversion to Buddhism or other faiths.

• Dalit Citizenship: the articulation of Dalit citizenship in relation to the issue of affirmative action as well as human rights. 

• Using the Media: representation of Dalits in the upper caste media and Dalit intervention in the different branches of mass media—print, electronic, publishing, theatre and films.

• Globalisation and Dalit entrepreneurship: the role of the emergent Dalit diaspora; the indigenous Dalit bourgeoisie and the political class’s complicity with neoliberal policies on the one hand and Dalit (and tribal) 

displacement and resistance on the other.

• Dalit and gender question: specificities of Dalit patriarchy.

• Dalit aesthetics and the Dalit intellectual: the question of Dalit aesthetics and the forms of Dalit expression. 

Please send your abstract (300 words) and a brief bionote (150 

words) to the following email or postal address by 9 December 2011:

Dr. Raj Kumar

Department of English

Delhi University, Delhi – 110007

Email: bedamatiraj AT yahoo.co.in

Conference Committee:

Dr. Raj Kumar (Director), Dr. Hany Babu, 

Dr. Tapan Basu, Dr. Nandini Chandra

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