Calcutta Comparatists 1919

Exciting, Inspiring, Unique: Giving a talk, live, in dialogue with Calcutta Comparatists 1919 was Pure Existential Joy!

' নতুন যৌবনেরই দূত’ একদল নব্য গবেষকের আন্তরিক ও উষ্ণ আহ্বানে সাড়া দিয়ে বক্তা হিসাবে উপস্থিত হয়েছিলাম এই আসরে - বিস্বজোড়া মহামারীর সংকট লগ্নে। সুন্দর ও সুচারু সেই আয়োজনে মুগ্ধ হয়েছি। নিত্য নতুন বিষয়ের চমৎকার পশরা সাজিয়ে প্রতিনিয়ত তাঁর অভিনব সব মননশীল বক্তৃতার আয়োজন করে চলেছেন। আন্তরিক শুভেচ্ছা জানাই তাঁদের এই মহতী উদ্যোগের। দিন দিন শ্রীবৃদ্ধি ঘটুক ‘Calcutta Comparatists 1919’ বৌদ্ধিক গোষ্ঠীর।।

As a PhD Candidate, it is always wonderful to have opportunities like this, where we can share our research and our evolving ideas and get feedback and comments from our peers. It was wonderful to be able to Skype in across time zones, and give a talk in an Indian university. I think academia reinscribes a lot of problematic colonial relations, by keeping institutions in the “West” isolated from institutions in other places. I think it is important to have dialogues across these divides, and so presenting my work scholars in India, while residing in the US, felt like both an interesting and important opportunity.

I believe Calcutta Comparatists to be an important initiative for interdisciplinary scholars. It is crucial to cultivate dialogue and exchanges between researchers at all stages of their careers and this group is doing this very well. I was approached by them to give a lecture on my historical research on material histories, and I had a wonderful experience delivering the talk as well as engaging in fruitful discussions with the organizers and attendees. I look forward to the future events and talks organized by Calcutta Comparatists.

The Calcutta Comparatists 1919 are a group of enthusiastic students and research scholars who have come together during the pandemic to bring a series of talks/ lectures on wide ranging topics from literature and culture studies. I was one such speaker and must say that the entire program was wonderfully organized. My best wishes to this energetic bunch of young people as they forge ahead.

It has been an excellent experience to be associated with the Calcutta Comparatists 1919. This forum of sincere, talented and young scholars of literatures and humanities from universities and research institutes across the world has been recently engaged in exploring multiple intersecting trends of the contemporary studies in social sciences and culture. The ongoing lecture series organized by CC1919, with its very distinctive nature, is a novel and highly successful way to focus and continue dialogues on several areas of research interests in humanities. I feel myself really fortunate to be linked with the collective effort of this forum to interrogate and change the paradigms, and wish it every success.