| CENTRE FOR STUDIES IN AFRICAN LITERATURES AND CULTURES |
| Set up by Executive Council resolution following recommendation by the Faculty of Arts in October 2005. |
| Aims: |
| Facilitation of direct South-South dialogue between India and the African continent as well as the peoples and cultures of African origins dispersed across the world. |
| Courses Offered: |
| At the Faculty of Arts, Jadavpur University, Kolkata |
| Four Extra departmental courses on the cultures of the African Diaspora, including North America, Latin America and the Carribbeans, entitled African Cultures across the World to Undergraduate students in the Arts Faculty. |
| Number of faculty members: 2 + 5 Research Fellows |
| Regular Activities: |
| Being held since 2002, before the inception of the Centre, in collaboration with different Departments and Schools of the Arts Faculty. Since 205, the Centre has continued this practice. Seven such Palaver meetings have been held so far. |
| Publications of the proceedings of these meetings: |
| Palaver, Proceedings of the Forum for the Scholars of African Studies, Volume I, Jadavpur University, 2002-2003. |
| Palaver, Proceedings of the Forum for the Scholars of African Studies, Volume II, Jadavpur University, 2007. |
| Palaver, Volume III- Forthcoming issue |
| Photographs of Palaver IV held on 10 September 2007 |
| (From left) Professor Jyotirmoy Pal Choudhuri, eminent scholar and one of the resource persons of our Centre and Dr. Raymond Suttner, Albertina and Walter Sisulu Research Centre, University of South Africa. |
| (From left) Dean, Faculty Council of Arts, Jadavpur University, Vice-Chancellor, Jadavpur University and Dr. Raymond Suttner, Albertina and Walter Sisulu Research Centre, University of South Africa. |
| (From left) Professor Anshu Dutta (eminent scholar and one of the resource persons of the center), Professor Tridib Chakrabarty (Head, Dept. of International Relations, J.U), Professor Ipshita Chanda (Coordinator, Centre for Studies in African Literatures and Cultures), Professor Jyotirmoy Pal Choudhuri (eminent scholar and one of the resource persons of the center), Professor Subha Chakraborty Dasgupta (Head, Dept. of Comparative Literature, J.U) |
| Students/Participants (Palaver IV, 2007) |
| Other Publications: |
| Africa Sankhya Sharadiya Ababhash 1409 ed. Ipshita Chanda. |
| Invited Lectures: |
| Dr. Raymond Suttner, Albertina and Walter Sisulu Research Centre, University of South Africa, on Regulations of Masculinities and Race in the anti-apartheid movement and the roots of the present. |
| Professor Patricia Hayes, SEPHIS and CSSS Fellow, on South African Colonial Photographs |
| Prof. Leonda Keniston, Dept. of Sociology, John Tyler Community College, Richmond, Virginia, on the roots of the African-American experience |
| Forthcoming: Professor Isabel Hofmeyr, Professor of African Literature at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa (Director, Centre for Indian Studies in South Africa, University of Johannesburg). |
| International Seminars: |
| Collaborated with School of Media Communications and Culture and Valerian Soccer Foundation in organizing an International seminar on Cultures of Football, April 2010. Organised a special panel on South Africa, World Cup 2010 at this seminar. |
| Trivia: |
| The Centre is collaborated, in August 2009, in teaching African American Literature to under graduate students at John Tyler Community College, Richmond, Virginia through an interactive blog, run jointly by Prof Mary Beth Wentworth at John Tyler and Prof. Ipshita Chanda at Jadavpur. |
| African Cultures Across the World: Four extra-departmental courses at the Undergraduate level on the literatures and cultures of African descent across the Americas, spanning music, dance and literary genres in North and Latin America and in the Caribbeans. Being offered at the Faculty of Arts in Jadavpur University since 2008. |
| Email: palaver.csalc@gmail.com |
