Kokrajhar: Seminar on Climate Change, Pandemic and War organized at Bodoland University

KOKRAJHAR: The department of English, Bodoland University, Kokrajhar organized a two-day international seminar in blended mode on the topic “Climate Change, Pandemic and War: Re-Reading Poetry in the 21st century” recently.

Dr. Rustam Brahma and Dr. Chandrima Sen, Assistant Professors, department of English, Bodoland University acted as convenors for the said programme. The Vice Chancellor of Bodoland University, Prof. Babu Lal Ahuja inaugurated the seminar by lighting the ceremonial lamp.

In his inaugural address, Prof. Ahuja spoke about the relevance of the seminar topic in the present-day world wherein the climate change directly affects one’s mental and physical health and hygiene. He also highlighted the crisis during the pandemic and any war as such.

The keynote address was delivered by Prof. Susheel Kumar Sharma, Professor of English, University of Allahabad, Prayagraj and it was chaired by Prof. Indranil Acharya, Professor of English, Vidyasagar University, West Bengal.  He divided his talk into two parts. In the first part, he talked about ecology in Hindu philosophical texts. He further focussed on the importance of poetry and wars like World War I, World War II and the war in the great Indian epic, Mahabharata. He also discussed ten different poems on climate change.

In the inaugural session, the book titled ‘Sightlines: Viewpoints on Susheel Kumar Sharma’s “The Door is Half Open”’ edited by Danielle Hanson, a poet and an editor from the USA was released by the Vice-Chancellor.  On the first day, there were three special lecture sessions. The speakers were Prof. Indranil Acharya, Vidyasagar University, Dr. Martynenko Elena Vladimirovna, Senior lecturer, department of Foreign Languages and Humanitarian Specialties, Rostov State University of Economics, Russia, and Biryukov Nicolay, Associate Professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Humanitarian Specialties, Rostov State University of Economics, Russia. 

The first two sessions were chaired by Prof. Susheel Kumar Sharma. The third one was chaired by Prof. B.C.Dash. The speakers mainly dealt with poems that engaged climate crisis, the struggle of aboriginal people in the face of British colonialism and the reading marathon. The International speakers spoke online. There were fifteen paper presentations on varied manifestations of climate change, pandemic and war in poetry.

The second day began with a talk by Prof. B.C. Dash, Retired Professor of English, Assam University, Diphu campus. The session was chaired by Prof. Anjali Daimary, Professor and Head of the Department of English, at Gauhati University. Prof. Dash referred to Shakespearean sonnets, Rabindranath Tagore and many more while interpreting poetry in the 21st century. This was followed by a talk by Dr. Saraswathy Thurairaj, Assistant Professor, department of Modern Languages, University of Tanku Abdul Rahma, Malaysia.

The session was chaired by Dr. Shivsankar Mazumder, Associate Professor, at Assam University. The next talk was by Mahendran Maniam, Associate Professor, Faculty of Languages and Communication, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia.  The session was chaired by Dr. Debashish Mohapatra. The seminar came to an end with a valedictory session with Dr. Subung Basumatary, Registrar, Bodoland University as chief guest. The session was honoured by Prof. B.C. Dash and Prof. Pradip Kumar Patra, Professor of English, Bodoland University. Prof. Patra highlighted the significance of the seminar that will benefit the scholars, students and teachers to grow in knowledge and perfection.

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