PGDAV College

Report

International conference on

The 21^st Century Indian Woman: Representations and Expressions

Jointly Organized by Department of English and IQAC

PGDAV College, Delhi University

12-13 March,2019

The Dept of English in collaboration with IQAC, PGDAV College organized a two day interdisciplinary international conference on The 21^st Century Indian Woman: Representations and Expressions. Prof Christel Devadawson from the Dept of English, Delhi University delivered the keynote address, while Prof Raj Kumar, Head, Dept of English, Delhi University was the Guest of Honour. Over two days, the conference hosted 6 international speakers, 17 national resource persons, and as many as 42 paper presentations on fields as diverse as Architecture, literature, commerce, theatre, cinema, music, creative writing, art, economics, law, popular culture, gender studies, sociology, cyberspace, and the digital world. The presentations sought to examine, analyse, and critique the various facets of what it means to be a woman in 21^st century India.

International speakers Prof Roger Connah and Prof Michael Karassowitsch addressed issues of ‘mansplaining’ and ‘masculinisms’, while Prof Johannes Burgers from Ashoka University highlighted the role that digital technologies can play in furthering research in the Humanities, particularly gender studies. German- Indian writer Ms Rosuwitha Joshi spoke of the boons and banes of being a bicultural writer, and Ms Mallika Walia from Columbia University elaborated on the implications of gender, identity, culture and race on young Indian American women. Prof Piyush Sharma form Australia brought up the subject of gender differences in self regulation.

Senior academician Prof Shormishtha Panja discussed Indian feminism in praxis; and Dean, School of Letters, Ambedkar University, Prof Radha Chakravarti spoke on representations of the female body in literature by South Asian women. Prof. Ira Raja and Dr Ashma Sharma touched upon gender and family, and eco feminist concerns respectively. Prof Vibhuti Sachdev, Dean, Sushant School of Architecture spoke about women in higher education, while architect and entrepreneur Ms. Manu Goel revealed her journey through this largely male dominated area. Eminent psychologist Dr Aruna Broota led the audience through real life situations where women succumb to patriarchy by viewing themselves as victims. Dr Gautam Vohra and Ms Priya Sen, founders of Development Research Action Group (DRAG) spoke of their efforts at empowering underprivileged women. Author and corporate strategist Isaac John dwelt on the possibilities for women inherent in the internet. Sanjay Kumar, founder of radical theatre group Pandies explored the advantages and disadvantages of activist theatre.

A panel discussion on women at the workplace saw concepts such as gendered spaces, ‘motherhood penalty’, vocalizing gender issues, and avoiding the pitfalls of generalization being debated and discussed at length. The #MeToo movement also featured in the discussion. Panelists included author and activist Dr Harshali Singh, Prof Roger Connah, Prof Michael Karassowitsch and Ms Renu Kapoor. It was moderated by the conference Convener Jyoti Kathpalia.

Organising Secretary Mr Mukesh Kumar Bairava gave the concluding remarks at the Valedictory; and certificates were awarded to all paper presenters. The conference ended with a vote of thanks by convener Ms Jyoti Kathpalia.

Eclectica- Report for the session 2017-18

Eclectica - The English Literary Society of the college organised a fun filled day of events for the session 2017-18. The annual self-composed poetry recitation competition along with the essay writing competition or Kaleidoscope was organised on 20th February 2018. The purpose of these events was to bring out the latent talent of the students, which hides somewhere in the corners of the four walled classrooms.

In the poetry /slam poetry competition our budding poets captured various themes. From growing addiction with social media, to our longing for our home, to the never ending quest for love, to the enigma that is death, every possible theme was interpreted by the participants in their own way. Each poem was so unique and beautiful that our judges Ms. Urvashi Sabu and Ms. Lian Pui were torn between snapping their fingers and judging them. There were fourteen participants in total for poetry and slam combined. The first prize was bragged by Ankita Taneja, second by Karishma Sahoo, third by Swati Baruah and fourth by Kartik Gupta. For slam, the first prize went to Brinda Sharma, second to Akriti Pant, third to Sara Haque and fourth to Anubhav Tekwani and Isha Gupta.

The Essay writing competition was conducted in two rounds. The first round was held on 15th Feb '18. The theme for this round was "Fairytale with a twist". The second round was conducted on 20th Feb '18 where the participants were shown a video clip on loop. It was judged by Ms. Renu Kapoor and Ms. Pritika Nehra. The participants had to base their pieces of writing on what they interpreted from the video. The first prize went to Kanika Kataria and second to Anubhav Tekwani.

Following the success of last year the society organized BYOB - Bring Your Own Book on the day of the event. The book barter fair was a great success. Over 200 books were exchanged. A book for a book educates the youth!