English department

profile

Started as a nodal department of the SGTB Khalsa College in 1951, the English Department began offering a full-fledged Honours Degree programme in 1956. Its journey from then to now has been one of discovering its biggest strength – to be able to equip first-generation college-goers with a creative, usable and effective Global link-language that nurtures their imagination and ambitions.

NAME DESIGNATION QUALIFICATION SPECIALISATION

Novy Kapadia Associate Professor M.A., M.Phil. (DU) Indian Writing in English, Postcolonial Literatures

Geetinder Kaur Associate Professor M.A., M.Phil. (DU) Modernism and Early Twentieth Century Fiction

Dr. Madhvi Zutshi Assistant Professor Ph.D. (Rutgers, USA) Eighteenth Century Literature, Gender Studies, Literary Theory

Saikat Ghosh Assistant Professor M.A., M.Phil. (JNU) Literary Theory, Modernism, Theatre

Dr. Akhilesh Kumar Assistant Professor Ph.D. (DU) Translation Studies

Dr. Indulekha P. Roy Burman

Assistant Professor Ph.D. (Kanpur) Theatre Studies, European Drama, Indian Drama

Kuljeet Singh Assistant Professor M.A., M.Phil. (DU) Comparative Literature and Drama

Mitia Nath Assistant Professor M.A., M.Phil. (DU) Postcolonial Literatures, Urban Histories & Cultures

Sujay Thakur Assistant Professor M.A., M.Phil. (JNU) Canadian Literatures, Subaltern Cultures

Mehul Bhushan Assistant Professor M.A. (DU) Indian Classical Literature

Samana Madhuri Assistant Professor M.A., M.Phil. (JNU) Immigrant Writing, Gender studies

Payal Agarwal Assistant Professor M.A., M.Phil. (Jamia) Partition Literature, Cinema Studies

Shubham Pandey Assistant Professor M.A. (DU) Communication Studies

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MONOGRAPHS

Javed Malick, Towards a Theatre of the Oppressed: The dramaturgy of John Arden, University of Michigan Press: Ann Arbor, 1995. ISBN 0-472-10587-6

Suvir Kaul, Poems of Nation, Anthems of Empire: English Verse in the long Eighteenth Century, University of Virginia Press: Charlottesville and London, 2000. ISBN 0-8139-1968-1

Rahul Sapra, The Limits of Orientalism: Seventeenth Century representations of India, University of Delaware Press: Newark, 2011. ISBN 978-1-61149-014-5

EDITED VOLUMES

Novy Kapadia, ed. Amitav Ghosh’s The Shadowlines: Critical Perspectives Asia Book Club: New Delhi, 2001. ISBN 978-8178510019

Kuljeet Singh, ed. The Mrichhkatika of Sudraka, Motilal Banarsidass; Worldview Publishers: Delhi, 2015 ISBN 978-81-208-4010-2

ESSAYS/ARTICLES IN EDITED VOLUMES & JOURNALS

Akhilesh Kumar, “In Search of An Alternative Tradition”, Modern Indian Literature, Issue No. 279 (2014). ISSN 0019580-4

PAPERS PRESENTED IN NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL SEMINARS/CONFERENCES

Madhvi Zutshi: Paper presented at Roundtable on Michael McKeon, “A Dialectical Engagement” for the Conference

of the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies, LA, California, 19 – 22 March 2015 (UGC International

Travel Grant)

Novy Kapadia: Read a paper on “Love and Politics in Dina Mehta’s And Some Take a Lover” at a National

Symposium on The Parsi Contribution to Indian Literature organised by Sahitya Akademi in collaboration with Mumbai

University on 20 September 2016.

Saikat Ghosh: Read a paper on “Sacred Freedoms in Contemporary American Fables” at a National UGC-sponsored

Seminar on Politics of the Sacred: Legacies, Issues and the Path Ahead, University of Kashmir, 17-19 March, 2014.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS & PAPERS PRESENTED IN NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL SEMINARS & CONFERENCES

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CORE: English Honours

Indian Classical Literature

European Classical Literature

Indian Writing in English

English Poetry and Drama from

14th to 17th century.

American Literature

Popular Literature

British Poetry and Drama: 17th

and 18th Centuries

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British Literature: 18th

Century

British Romantic Literature

British Literature: 19th

Century

Women’s Writing

British Literature: The Early

20th Century

Modern European Drama

ELECTIVE: English Honours

Modern Indian Writing in Translation

Literature of the Indian Diaspora

British Literature: Post WW II

19th Century European Realism

Literary Theory

Literary Criticism

Science Fiction and Detective Literature

Literature and Cinema

World Literature

Partition Literature

Research Methodology

Travel Writing

Autobiography

GENERIC ELECTIVE COURSES

-Language, Literature and Culture (1st Semester): Broad survey of

Indian languages, literatures and cultures from the Vedic age to the

present times.

-Media and Communication Skills (2nd Semester): Media Literacy in

the Digital Age; History of Print, Radio, Television and Internet and

Social Media.

-Contemporary India: Women and Empowerment (3rd Semester):

Interdisciplinary Course addressing the history of the Women’s

Movement and Feminist ideas in the context of Law, Labour, Family

and Healthcare.

SKILL-BASED COURSES

-SEEC: Translation Studies (3rd Semester): Theory and Practice of

Translation from regional Bhashas to English; English as a link-

language; importance of Translation in Indian Civilisation.

-AECC: Functional English (1st Semester): Training in Speech and

Functional Writing Skills through innovative group activity and

simulation exercises.

REGULAR REVIEW FEEDBACK MECHANISM

DEPARTMENTAL MONITORING COMMITTEE (DMC)

Current Members

Novy Kapadia (Convener)

Geetinder Kaur (Faculty)

Saikat Ghosh (Secretary)

Prabhjot Kaur (Student)

Aashna Nagpal (Student)

Chirag Sehgal (Student)

Akshara Srivastava (Student)

Shreya Barua (Student)

Nandini Chauhan (Student)

WORKING FEATURES

• Definition: The Department Monitoring Committee is a Joint Student-Faculty Forum that constitutes the

Departmental Unit of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the College.

• Scope: The DMC is a body that periodically reviews and monitors teaching-learning processes, syllabus

coverage and preparation for examinations, Innovation activities, Student-Feedback, Suggestions and

Teacher-Student relations. It is the most systematic Feedback Mechanism featuring democratic discussion

and time-bound decisions based on consensus.

• Constitution: The HoD, a Senior Faculty member and a Faculty Secretary represent the teachers while two

Class Representatives from each of the ongoing semesters represent the students. The Class Representatives

are chosen from among students with the best academic record and regular attendance (75%).

• Process: The DMC meets usually once a month. Agenda is made on the basis of consultation and decisions

taken in the earlier meeting. Every member participates in a representative capacity. Non-listed agenda is

also raised and discussed with the permission of the Convener (HoD) under “Any Other Matter”. Decisions

are minuted and time-frame is decided for implementation of decisions. The minutes are duly recorded and

reported to the College-level IQAC.

RESULTS ANALYSIS - I

1.1 Trends in Overall Results (Comparison of Batches 2011-14, 2012-15 and 2013-16)

The aggregate results of the last three batches, i.e. 2011-14, 2012-15 and 2013-16, show a steady upward trend in

the number and percentage of students who have secured First Division marks. In the latest batch to have graduated,

63.30% students secured First Division (a rare and creditable feat in the Humanities) while 31.30% students passed

with Second Division.

This steady trend registers the success of the goal that the English Department has applied itself to, i.e. to ensure that

maximum students in a batch overcome their initial learning difficulties through careful mentoring and are enabled to

secure top results in the University Examinations.

The steady improvements in the results indicate the extent to which the teaching-learning process consciously applies

itself to achieving the learning outcomes.

RESULTS ANALYSIS - II

Semester-wise Results Analysis for all ongoing current batches to monitor students’ progress

Current batch in old Semester Mode (2014-17) shows an ongoing trend of progress similar to all erstwhile batches.

Current CBCS entry-batch (2015-18) shows variation of results between first and second semesters. This progression

is tough as many students encounter problems in maintain consistency of performance due to their involvement in

extra-curricular activities and relative lack of clarity in academic choices. The analysis becomes the basis for

identifying areas of intervention and mentoring that address specific learning difficulties, as well as counseling on

priorities, personal issues, time-management and overall application of academic effort.

TEACHING-LEARNING INTERVENTIONS

• Coordinated joint-teaching of papers to ensure

multiple perspectives and shared, reflective

pedagogy

• Organisation of teaching through week-wise

Lesson Plans, Internal Assessment schedule and

regular uploading of questions and secondary

reading material in the departmental pages of

the College Website

• Continuous Evaluation through quizzes, tests

and supervised tutorial-assignments (research

essays)

• Regular semester-wise workshops on Research

Methodology, Writing Protocols and use of

library sources (books, journals and digital

material) for study and research

• Creative learning through regular screening of

films related to texts, themes and historical

periods, audio-visual aids and use of ICT in

classroom and beyond

• Clear identification of Learning Outcomes for

every paper based on: the ability to effectively

communicate knowledge of texts, themes and

ideas; ability to mobilise theoretical principles of

criticism in writing answers and essays; ability to

formulate and pursue research questions

• Batch-wise Mentors counsel students on

academic, cultural and personal issues and

problems; give career guidance

• Guidance to students to help them choose their

Electives and Allied Subjects

• Remedial Teaching for weaker students

• Reading Group for supplementary reading of

philosophical and theoretical texts

• Books for needy students (worth ten thousand

rupees sanctioned by college every semester)

• Smitha Menon Memorial Award (annual

scholarship), funded by English Department, to

a student with modest means and has shown

academic promise through consistently good

results and all-round development

• Library Orientation to all students by the

Departmental Library Committee

AIDING THE CREATIVE PROCESS

Literary Studies combines the development of the

critical faculty with sensitivity towards creative

processes. The emphasis on creativity pervades the

continuous attempt to guide students’ progress through

the programme of courses. This emphasis is reflected

through the following activities of the English Literary

Society:

• Workshops and Projects on Visual Art and

Performing Art

• Student-seminars

• Guidance in Creative Expression through online

journal Echo

• Exposure to Theatre by taking students to watch

relevant plays at the NSD and regular Film

Screenings through Focus

FUTURE

ARCHIVE OF PERFORMING-ART TRADITIONS

The classical, urban and folk theatres of India, though widely popular across the world, constitute but a small fraction

of the Nation's vast repertoire of performative idioms and registers. Apart from a plethora of rituals, i.e. coded or

stylized practices marking every event of community and civic life, the Indic peoples have nurtured, through

millennia, rich oral traditions of storytelling, discourse and learned disputations – all of which rest on their own

grammar of performance. The presence of the 'performative' is so all-pervasive that it may be seen to influence

meanings and values in every other sphere of life. One may recall that the Natyashastra, a classical treatise on

Performance, is simultaneously an exploration of the complex organic chemistry of emotions and states of mind.

Despite this, few scholars have paid attention to the performing traditions that lie beyond the conventionally

theatrical. The challenge has been to document relatively unknown or lesser-known traditions of performance and

ritual, or even commonplace ritual practices which are hitherto only understood through the content they refer to

(eg. Puranic legends), and study their forms. It is in this context that the Department proposes to build up, over

time, a multimedia archive of Indic Performing Traditions. The archive will document living idioms of performance,

taxonomise them and show linkages between different idioms, wherever possible. The objective of building such an

archive is to offer resources to researchers in the fields of Theatre, Comparative Literature, Anthropology,

Iconography and Indology.

• Research and Archiving team will comprise students of B.A. (Honours) English.

• This project will entail the students' engagement with lesser-known local performing-art traditions, oral storytelling traditions and cultural rituals through a process of travel, audio, visual and textual documentation, interviews and ethnography.

• The exercise will result in a continuous process of archiving these traditions and providing

valuable research resources.

• Students will be benefitted by a close and practical acquaintance with forms and patterns of creativity in the cultural sphere.

• The attempt of the Principal Investigator of the Project, Kuljeet Singh, will be to identify

learning sources outside the institutional spaces and offer students the opportunity to learn from the society at large.

• The archive will also be shared in the public domain on digital format through a dedicated

multimedia blog with interactive features that will enable the public at large to view the archive and offer feedback and suggestions that will work as inputs for further effort.

FUTURE

TRANSLATION OF SIX INDIGENOUS STORIES

The experience of teaching Translation Studies as an SEEC Course has shown the multiple uses of

involving students in practical translation activity. Translation is an invaluable professional skill;

however, it also offers the cultural insight of the manner in which diverse languages have been allowed

to retain their own identity and uniqueness, yet contribute to the composite civilization and culture of

India. This insight can be best communicated to students through a Translation Project that involves a

shared collective engagement with indigenous languages of tribal communities. Stories in these

languages are marginal to the mainstream Indian consciousness but they are a rich repository of

symbols and archetypes that are reflected in the deep continuities in indigenous cultures of India. The

Project of translating six stories from Indigenous Indian languages into English will help create a

critical awareness of these continuities as well as the need to preserve them through strategic cultural

interventions.

The Project is conceptualized in three stages: First, wherein students will theoretically engage with the

concept of Indigeneity through discussion on a set of interdisciplinary readings about oral literature,

tribal cultures and languages, symbols and archetypes. The Second phase, wherein students will work

with a chosen set of six stories and accomplish the actual translations. In the Third and final phase,

students will reflect back on the process of translation, editing and preparing a manuscript for

publication.

• The Translation Project primarily involves the students of the SEEC Translation students, a mixed class of students from different courses in the CBCS.

• The Project aims at a collective student-centric exercise culminating in the translation of 6 stories from diverse parts of India and from source- languages that are marginal (indigenous tribal languages) to English.

• The project aims to acquaint students with the key role of Translation in sustaining the composite and shared nature of our culture, while simultaneously allowing students to engage with the contexts of marginal tongues and narrative forms.

• The translated stories will be published in a volume edited by Mehul Bhushan, the Principal Coordinator of the Translation Project.

DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES

MENTORING & WELFARE

EDUCATIONAL TOURS

RECENT EVENTS

2011: Started Remedial Teaching Programme

2011: Started purchasing text-books for students from economically underprivileged sections with sanctioned amount of Rs. Ten thousand per semester

2011: Participated in the teaching of Certificate Course on Global Business Foundation Skills in collaboration with NASSCOM

LITERARY SOCIETY

Screened Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron to discuss the impact of Brecht’s Epic Theatre on Cinema

2015: Screened film Parinay on issues related to women’s freedom

Screened Gone with the Wind for Popular Literature paper

2014: Screened Mrs. Dalloway

2012: Screened Doctor Faustus, Othello

The first Educational Tour arranged by this committee is a students’ scheduled tour to the Kochi International Art Biennale from Dec 12 to Dec 19, 2016. (Coordinator: Sujay Thakur)

2016 and 2015: The Department took students to the Jaipur Literary Festival

TALKS & DISCUSSIONS 2016: Dr. Vanita (Punjabi Dept.) on Amrita Pritam’s Life and Works 2015: Sunil Dua (Hindu College) on Homer’s epic The Iliad 2014: Seminar on Reading the Outcaste in Literature with papers by scholars Dr. Vijaya Venkataraman (Dept. of GRS, DU), Sandip Singh (St. Stephen’s College) and Simran Chaddha (Dyal Singh College) 2013: Prof. Michael McKeon (Rutgers) on Approaches to Eighteenth-Century Studies 2013: British novelist Ned Beauman in conversation with faculty Saikat Ghosh (British Council Series)

2016: Avijit Ghosh (Dy. Editor, ToI) gave talk on Careers in the Media

2012: English department took over funding of Smitha Menon Scholarship Award

FOCUS: FILM CLUB

2016: Screened Mad Max IV: Fury Road for Post-Apocalypse Narratives

Screened Beloved for related text in American Literature paper

The Educational Tours Committee is a new Committee formed at the Departmental level keeping in mind the need to coordinate travelling schedules of students for the purposes of education and research projects.

Since 2011, the English literary Society’s focus has been on issues related to Gender.

2016: Play and interactive Workshop on Masculinity and Gender by MenEngage Delhi and Centre for Health and Social Justice 2014-15: Reading Group on Feminism 2013: Student performance titled “Philomela’s Song” and an innovative art installation seeking to challenge gender stereotypes after Dec 2012 Nirbhaya incident 2012: Student Conference on “The Body and the City”

LEARNING IN SOCIETY

ECHO: The Literary Society E-Journal

• ECHO was started as the English Literary Society Creative Writing Journal in 2007.

• The Journal provides a platform for all students to write and experiment with different literary genres and develop their skills in creative content-writing and contemporary visual art.

• ECHO's editorial and art teams are comprised entirely of students with one teacher from the Department mentoring them.

• ECHO went digital and became an online free-access Journal since 2012 in order to reach out to a larger readership on the Internet.

• Since 2012, all its student-editors have gone on to pursue Journalism studies at the prestigious Asian College of Journalism, Chennai and subsequently, as professionals with media houses like Hindustan Times, the New Indian Express, The Quint and Bloomberg.

Social Outreach Programmes Involving Students

• Novy Kapadia, Department Convener, worked for social & psychological rehabilitation of youth affected by trauma & loss in 1984.

• Geetinder Kaur, Senior faculty member, is associated with NGO Goonj that works with the underprivileged.

• Kuljeet Singh, faculty member, teaches children of sex-workers as part of welfare programme run by NGO Katkatha.

• Sujay Thakur, faculty member, coordinated

Antarchakshu with the NSS unit - a workshop sensitizing students about challenges faced by their visually impaired peers.

• Four students of the English Department were

chosen to be a part of the Delhi University team for Gyanoday 2014 wherein they travelled to the North-Eastern states for an educational programme.

TEACHING-LEARNING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Special emphasis on making quality secondary and critical reading material available to Open-Learning students

• E-LEARNING – faculty members Novy Kapadia, Dr. Akhilesh and Mehul Bhushan have developed E-Learning modules on English Literature texts and papers for Institute of Life-Long Learning (ILLL), Delhi University.

• School of Open Learning – faculty member Novy Kapadia prepared and wrote a lesson module on 16th Century Love Poetry for the Delhi University’s B.A. (Hons.) Correspondence Programme run by the School of Open Learning, DU.

• IGNOU – Novy Kapadia prepared a workbook on Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man for the New Literatures in English paper for M.A. English in the Distance Education Postgraduate Programme run by the Indira Gandhi National Open University.