The Masters of Arts program in English and Cultural Studies aims to provide an interdisciplinary understanding of perspectives on literary, media and cultural texts and theories. The program has been designed to enable students to engage with culture in a more critically informed manner, sharpened by various theoretical and experiential lenses. Aligning with the outcomes of the program and the discipline, the orientation program aims to introduce students to explore central questions with regard to an engagement with culture via varied pedagogical approaches.
Two-hour long sessions beginning from 29 June 2020, up to 18 July 2020 are scheduled to introduce the program and the disciplinary frameworks for students entering the program.
The objectives of the orientation program was to familiarize the students with the MAECS program and the disciplines it engages with. the academic expectations and university’s policies on the same and develop an understanding of the multiple practices and approaches employed in the discipline.
The following were the highlights of the sessions :
01 July 2020: The session began at 10 am for both MTTM and MECS students with an address by the director, followed by an address by the Dean.
Both addresses reiterated the need to recognise the significance of learning, unlearning, success and failures.
This was followed by discipline specific sessions where each student introduced themselves virtually.
02 July 2020: Address by Prof John Joseph Kennedy, Dean, School of Arts and Humanities.
03 July 2020: Address by Ms Gaana’s on “University Academic Culture” . followed by an overview of the MECS program. Dr Rashmi Sawhney, the Coordinator of the MES programme.
04 July 2020: The session on reading strategies was conducted by Dr Meghna M. T.
06 July 2020: The session on Postgraduate Learning was conducted as an open-ended conversation with students, led by Dr Devaleena K and Dr Diviya.
07 July 2020 The session on “Texts and Textuality: ‘Reading’ the World” was facilitated by Dr Rashmi Sawhney and Ms Renu E Abraham.
08 July 2020 and 09 July 2020: Orientation for Library and IT digital tools was conducted at the University level
10 July: Textual Analysis – Rashmi Sawhney
11 July: Objects, Events, Places: Narrating Postcoloniality – Gaana J
July 13: The session on Cinema Studies: An Introduction” was facilitated by Dr. Sonia Ghalian and Dr. Vidya S. T.
14th June 2020 : The session on The Contested Site: Narrativising Body and Violence was facilitated by Dr. Arya P Vijayaraghavan and Dr. Meghana Mudaliar.
15 July 2020 The session on ‘Language, Discourse, Culture’ was facilitated by Dr Diviya.
This was followed by Dr Chandan’s session. The fundamental aim of the talk was to see the correlation between the linguistic structure and societal structure, and how it can be validated.
16 July 2020: The session on ‘Memory, History and Orality’ began by Dr.Prerana Srimaal introducing the students to the concept of memory and interpretation of various aspects of historical significance based on memory.
17 July 2020: The lecture session on “New Approaches to Reading Texts” was facilitated by Mr. Arun D M. the session looked at reading as a philanthropic cum philosophic inquiry on reality.
18 July 2020 :The session on ‘Emerging Fields in the Humanities’ began with an introductory remark by Dr. Paul Mathew, particularly relating to fields like Medical Humanities and Digital Humanities.
