EVENT REPORT
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, DESHBANDHU COLLEGE FOR GIRLS
TALK BY DR. RAFAT ALI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH,
JADAVPUR UNIVERSITY, KOLKATA AND STUDENT PAPER PRESENTATIONS
The Department of English, Deshbandhu College for Girls in collaboration with the IQAC of
the College organized a Talk by Dr. Rafat Ali, Associate Professor in English, Jadavpur
University on 27 April 2022. The Talk was titled ReOrienting the Idea of Europe: Medieval
and Early Modern European Literature. The Talk was followed by paper presentations by
students of semester VI of the Department of English. Dr Ali judged the presentations and
presented certificates to the participants and a prize to the winner.
The event was spread over three sessions. The Inaugural session began with Dr, Annapurna
Palit, Assistant Professor, Department of English and Convenor of the Seminar making the
introductory remarks. It was followed by the lighting of a ceremonial lamp and offering of
floral tributes to the portrait of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das by the Principal of the College,
Dr.Anita Chattopadhyay Gupta, Maitreyee Bhattacharya, Hon’ble member of the Governing
Body of the College and the Speaker, Dr. Rafat Ali.The felicitation of dignitaries was
followed by a welcome address by Dr.Anita Chattopadhyay Gupta and addresses by
Maitreyee Bhattacharya and Devbani Raychaudhuri, Dept of Political Science and member
IQAC, Deshbandhu College for Girls.
In the second session [Academic Session 1], Dr. Parjanya Sen, Assistant Professor,
Department of English, introduced the topic and the speaker, Dr. Rafat Ali. Dr. Ali delivered
a brilliant lecture along with a captivating power point presentation. He sought to present an
alternative approach to the ‘idea of Europe’. Dr. Ali referred to Edward Said and other
scholars to substantiate his proposition and attempted to deconstruct the prevalent discursive
configurations of Europe by shifting the gaze to Central Asia and the “Orient”. An engaging
Question Answer session followed the Talk.
In the third session [Academic Session II] students from semester VI of the Department of
English read papers. Sohini Nath read a paper on “Female Self Assertion in Kamala Das’s,
An Introduction. Satata Sinha’s paper was titled “A Feminist Reading of Tendulkar’s Silence!