CFP: Two days seminar on Tales of Timelessness: Understanding the Heritage of Bengal-March 21- 22, 2024, Kazi Nazrul University

 Call For Papers

Panchakot Mahavidyalaya, Purulia, is organizing a two-day seminar on 'Tales of Timelessness: Understanding the Heritage of West Bengal' from 21st and 22nd March 2024. On this occasion, we are pleased to announce a call for papers, inviting research students and independent scholars to submit their original research (300-400 words abstract) along with their bio-note to suvajit.halder@panchakotmv.ac.in.

Last Date of Abstract Submission: 1st March 2024.

Concept Note

Understanding/conserving heritage is more than creating museums or collecting artifacts, stories, and songs. Heritage is a living experience that weaves together the threads of our past, present, and future. It goes beyond the surface, delving into the stories, values, and legacies that shape our identities as individuals and communities.

At its core, heritage encapsulates tangible and intangible expressions of human creativity and achievement. It encompasses historical sites, cultural practices, languages, folklore, and collective memories that bind a society. Heritage is a repository of knowledge, a bridge between generations, and a testament to the diversity of human experiences.

Heritage is dynamic, evolving with time while retaining its intrinsic essence. It reflects the continuous interplay between tradition and modernity, adaptation, and preservation. Recognizing and safeguarding heritage becomes a collective responsibility as it contributes to a sense of belonging and shared identity within communities.

Moreover, understanding heritage fosters an appreciation and respect for cultural diversity. It encourages cross-cultural dialogue, allowing individuals to embrace the richness of traditions different from their own. Heritage becomes a source of inspiration, a reservoir of creativity that sparks innovation while grounding societies in their roots.

In essence, understanding heritage is an invitation to explore the roots of our existence, to appreciate the cultural mosaic that defines us. It prompts us to preserve, celebrate, and transmit our heritage to future generations, ensuring that the stories of our past continue to resonate in the present and echo into the future. Heritage is not merely a static snapshot of history; it is a vibrant, ever-unfolding narrative that invites us to connect, learn, and carry forward the legacy of our shared human experience.

Nestled in the eastern part of India, Bengal is a state that exudes cultural richness and historical significance. Many of its treasures are still unexplored but significant in understanding the richness of Bengali culture. For instance, Garh Panchakot of Purulia district, which holds immense significance in the history of this region, remains historically unexplored. Another example is Telkupi village, containing the finest and largest number of temples in one place in the Chota Nagpur circle of Bengal, unknown to many Bengalis. Moreover, the opulent tradition of handicrafts, paintings, dance, and plays in these regions remains unheard of by many scholars and the common masses. Therefore, to explore and understand the heritage of Bengal more thoroughly, we invite scholars and professionals to present their research in the seminar entitled 'Tales of Timelessness: Understanding the Heritage of West Bengal.'

Objective: 

The primary objective of this seminar is to provide a comprehensive exploration of West Bengal's heritage, shedding light on its historical, cultural, and architectural significance. Participants will gain insights into the evolution of the state's heritage and its impact on contemporary society.

 

Themes

Historical Narratives:

• Historical events, chronology of lesser-known dynasties, epigraphic, and numismatic studies.

Cultural Narrative:

• Exploring the vibrant festivals and traditions that define the cultural ethos of West Bengal.
• Analyzing the role of literature, music, and performing arts in preserving and promoting cultural heritage.

Architectural Marvels:

• Investigating the architectural heritage of West Bengal, including iconic structures, temples, and palaces.
• Discussing the fusion of indigenous and foreign architectural styles that characterize the region.

Food/Dress/Residence:

• Delving into the unique culinary traditions of West Bengal, including the world-famous Bengali cuisine.
• Understanding the historical and cultural significance of traditional dishes and culinary practices.
• Exploring diverse traditions of dresses of Bengal.
• Different styles of houses and their ornamentation.

Craftsmanship and Handicrafts:

• Showcasing the intricate craftsmanship and traditional handicrafts passed down through generations.
• Discussing the role of artisans in preserving and promoting West Bengal's artistic heritage.

Socio-economic study of different heritage sites.

Exploring the possibility and making a plan to make lesser-known Heritage sites a tourist attraction.

 

Exploring the Heritage sites of Purulia with special reference to Garh Panchakot and its surrounding areas.

 

Expected Outcomes

• Increased awareness and appreciation of West Bengal's rich heritage.
• Creation of a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration.
• Generation of research and documentation to contribute to the preservation of West Bengal's cultural legacy.

Free accommodation may be offered at the college hostel, subject to availability. The seminar committee can also arrange accommodation at resorts (Panchet Hill) for participants on payment. No TA will be provided to the participants. 

 

Registration fees: 

For offline presentation: INR 1500/- 

For online Presentation: INR 500/-

Selected papers will be published in a special issue of PANCHAKOTesSAYS: Multidisciplinary, Refereed, International Journal, ISSN: 0976-4968.

https://journal.panchakotmv.ac.in

For any queries, please feel free to write to us at suvajit.halder@panchakotmv.ac.in.

N.B.: A guided tour of Garh Panchakot will be organised for the Participants after the Seminar.

Contact Information

For any queries, please feel free to write to us at suvajit.halder@panchakotmv.ac.in.

Contact Email

suvajit.halder@panchakotmv.ac.in

Attachments

tales-timelessness.pdf

CFP: Graduate Conference: Remembering Histories: Memory, Transmission and Identities-Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi

 The discursive nature of history has been exposed through multiple theoretical lenses, subjectivities, and socio-political positions that have expressed its polylogic dimensions. The post-structuralist turn of humanities with the advent of fields such as trauma and memory studies also brought to the fore the role and politics of remembering as a mode of narrating and understanding claims to history. Understood both as an individual and collective-social practice, history is dynamic and open to contestations. Understanding history is therefore an attempt to understand ongoing negotiations with a past that continues to linger beyond its assumed temporal limits. Often, this continues across generations especially when ideas of power and politics, justice and healing get inexplicably intertwined with remembering. This inheritance of a past calls forth a need to analyse the multigenerational character of individual and collective memory.

Drawing on Jan Assmann’s notion of cultural memory, and Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, this conference seeks to stir discussions on the dynamic space and relationship between history and remembering with a special focus on transmission of history, via memory, through time and generations.

The conference will explore questions such as:

How is history a mode of remembering? 

How are collective identities meshed out of experiencing the unfolding of history?

How is memory mediated at individual and collective levels?

How is remembering a clinical and ethical enterprise? In what ways do testimonies and literary texts navigate the politics of memory?

Themes:

● Transgenerational memory and history

● History and ‘counter’ history

● Modes and politics of remembering

● Literature and History

● Testimonial literature

● Trauma and memory

● Individual and collective trauma

● Remembering and forgetting

● Mass media

● Representation, language, and memory

● Material Memory

● Oral history

● History of emotions

Submission Guidelines:

We invite abstracts of maximum 250 words related to the theme along with a short bio note. 

All papers must be original to the best of their knowledge and adhere to the MLA 9th edition. 

The time limit for each presentation is 10 minutes. Any kind of plagiarism is not allowed.

Note: Due to monetary constraints, the organizers won’t be responsible for any expenses borne by the participants. Participants would have to look after their own transportation and accommodation.

Important Dates:

Submission of Abstracts: 25th November, 2023

Intimation of Accepted Abstracts: 5th December, 2023

Submission of Full Length Papers: 10th January, 2023

Intimation of Accepted Full Length Papers: 20th January, 2023

Paper presentation and Panel Discussion: 29th January, 2024

 

Submission form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOLQpyLrFvHyVYLTHPRpjYQ3PfvR_e...

 

For further queries, contact:

englitassociation.svc@gmail.com

Aswathi Alappat (President)- aswathisalappat@gmail.com

Harsha (President)- harshasin641@gmail.com

Himangi Patnaik (General Secretary)- himangipatnaik04@gmail.com

Narjis Bint Islam (Joint Secretary)- narjis22bintislam@gmail.com

INTERNATIONAL #CONFERENCE ON #MEMORY #STUDIES -DEPARTMENTS OF ENGLISH AND HISTORY LORETO COLLEGE, #KOLKATA- February, 2024)

 

CONCEPT NOTE:

Memory studies is a multidisciplinary field which combines intellectual strands from literature, history, philosophy, psychology and sociology, among others. Henri Bergson’s Matter and Memory (1896), Paul Ricœur’s Memory, History and Forgetting (2004), French historian Pierre Nora’s Realms of Memory (1996) and Jacques Le Goff’s History and Memory (1992) have inspired much research in the area of memory studies. Memory can be both an individual phenomenon as well as societal and collective. Forms of remembering operate as individual and collective representations of the past and they constitute a range of cultural resources for personal, social and historical identities, privileging particular readings of the past and subordinating others. Collective memory can serve as a therapeutic practice for a community and its members, as it comprises an active constructive process during which the members of a community participate in interpreting and processing shared past experiences (particularly traumas) into eventual memory representations, often in such forms as narratives, dramatizations, art, and ritual. Literature thus forms an important medium of cultural memory. The mass media plays a key role in the constitution of memory – and the politics of remembering is intrinsically connected to power.  The act of remembering, whether involving individual, socio-historical or cultural representations of the past, is a process which involves selections, absences and multiple, potentially conflicting accounts. Memories are part of a larger process of dynamic cultural negotiation involving history and literature, which defines memories as narratives, and as fluid and mediated cultural and personal traces of the past. In the modern world, then, memory is an important means of establishing authority or destabilising grand narratives of history and power, of evoking nostalgia and helping to forge personal and national identity.

The conference will seek to address issues such as the following:

How do we represent the past to ourselves and to others? Which of our many pasts do we represent, and when, where, and why do we change those representations? How do those representations shape our actions, identities, and understandings? How do individual-level processes interact with collective ones, and vice versa? What does it mean to think about “memory” in these broad ways? In what ways are we ethically and politically obligated to remember, and what are the consequences of forgetting or failing to meet these obligations?

Keynote Speakers:

Prof. Stef Craps (University of Ghent, Belgium)

Dr. Abhishek Parui (IIT Madras)

Special Plenary Sessions:

Dr. Itay Lotem (University of Westminster, London)

Ms. Roberta Bacic (Founder of Conflict Textiles, Northern Ireland)

We invite paper submissions of 15-20 minutes duration from scholars whose work addresses topics including, but not limited to the following fields:

• Memory and oral history
• Contested histories and memory
• Memory, memorials, the visual arts, archives, installations
• Landscape and memory
• Memory and trauma (slavery, Partition, World Wars, Holocaust, Irish conflict, genocide, apartheid, 9/11, pandemic etc)
• Literature and nostalgia
• Memory and the diaspora
• Memory and the Media
• Collective Memory
• Cultural Memory

 

To submit a proposal, please send abstracts to conferencememorystudies@gmail.com 

Please include the following in one PDF:

• Paper title

• Paper abstract (250-word maximum)

• CV with your full name, institutional affiliation (if applicable), title, and email address

 

Paper presenters will be informed by 15 November, 2023.

 

Conference Convenor: Sukanya Dasgupta

Co-Convenor: Suparna Ghosh

Head of the Organizing Committee: Srijita Chakravarty

 

Following the conference, a selection of papers will be chosen by the organizers for inclusion in a proposed edited volume.