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ZHCES organises a seminar by Dr. Ajit K. Mohanty

ZHCES organises a seminar by Dr. Ajit K. Mohanty

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ZHCES organises a seminar by Dr. Ajit K. Mohanty
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Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies
School of Social Sciences

ZHCES Seminar Series


The Sociolinguistic Double Divide and Language War in India


Dr. Ajit K. Mohanty
Professor of Psychology
ICSSR National Fellow, Professor and former chairperson
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi


About the Speaker: Dr. Ajit K. Mohanty (Ph. D., Alberta) was Professor of Psychology, ICSSR National Fellow Professor and former chairperson at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He served as UGC Emeritus Professor at Utkal University from 2015 to 2016. His primary area of research is Educational Psycholinguistics (Multilingualism & Multilingual Education). He has published 180 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters and 8 books. The recent book, "The Multilingual Reality: Living with Languages, 2019, Multilingual Matters)" is well received internationally. He is currently working on Multilingual Education for Indigenous Minorities and has drafted the Language Policy for Nepal & Odisha (India). He is the Life Time Fellow of APS; Fellow & Past President, National Academy of Psychology, India; Fulbright Visiting Professor, Columbia University (2007-08); Visiting Professor, University of Western Ontario (2014); Fulbright Senior Scholar, University of Wisconsin; Killam Scholar, University of Alberta; He writes columns in News Papers in Odisha.


DATE: 5 December, 2022 (Monday)
TIME: 03:00 pm


(All Welcome)

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.