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Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Central Library is organising a lecture by Ms. Brenda Beck

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Central Library is organising a lecture by Ms. Brenda Beck

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Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Central Library is organising a lecture by Ms. Brenda Beck
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Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Central Library
Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

cordially invites you to the 29th Library Lecture Series and Outreach Programme

 

“A Wonderful Folk Epic From South India”

 

Ms. Brenda Beck
Adjunct Professor, University of Toronto
President, Sophia Hilton Foundation of Canada
Producer: The Legend of Ponnivala (video series)
And related educational materials

 

Chairperson: N. Chandrasekhran, Assistant Professor, Tamil Chair, CIL/SLL&CS, JNU

 

Date: Friday, 10th November 2017 at 12.00 noon
Venue: Committee Room, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Central Library, JNU

 

About the talk: The talk will introduce an almost unknown folk epic collected 52 years ago in the Kongu area of Tamilnadu. Since then the speaker has transcribed and published the audio text of the story, as well as animated it in thirteen hours of video. Later she saw this animation through to broadcast distribution, both in South India and in Canada. Since completing that work she has produced graphic novels, wall murals, an ipad ap and even a digital game that build on the story’s contents.  Her passion is to share this marvelous folk tradition with a worldwide audience. Dr. Beck has been teaching the story in Canada for several years now, focusing of themes of interest to Canadians: e.g. tribal rights, immigrant experiences and Social Justice.  All these themes are found woven through this unique forty-four hour legend known as the Annanmar Katai in Tamil. The lecture will be illustrated with about 50 visuals as well as a huge wall mural.

 

About the Speaker: Dr. Beck holds a D.Phil. from Oxford University. She has studied Tamil folk epics and folklore for more than fifty years. She has taught at several universities and is now located at The University of Toronto, in the Department of Anthropology. She is the author of five books and about fifty articles. She has won numerous awards for her work and lectured in universities around the world. Dr. Beck’s first book, Peasant Society in Konku, an ethnography of the area she first studied, has just been translated into Tamil and will be appearing as a separate published volume shortly.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.