Sophia College for Women
(Empowered Autonomous)
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Senior College

CORE FACULTY FOUNDATION COURSE ECONOMICS EDUCATION ENGLISH FRENCH HINDI HISTORY PHILOSOPHY POLITICAL SCIENCE PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY BIOCHEMISTRY CHEMISTRY LIFE SCIENCE MATHEMATICS & STATISTICS MICROBIOLOGY PHYSICS ZOOLOGY MASS MEDIA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY QUALITY ASSURANCE

ENGLISH

About the Department

The syllabus of the Department of English covers a wide range of literary, cultural and theoretical texts from various time periods and cultures. Students are exposed to a wide range of texts from various periods of English literature (from the Renaissance to the 21st century), Indian literature in English and American literature. Students are encouraged to question the boundaries of what constitutes literature. The syllabus incorporates diverse areas of study such as children’s literature, popular fiction, visual arts, cyberculture studies, film studies, fan fiction, disability studies, food studies, climate studies, and performance studies. Students are trained to critically analyse the prescribed texts and their relationship with the cultural contexts in which they are produced and consumed. Ample space is given to texts - literary, visual, cinematic - produced by members of socially marginalised groups.

 

As part of their internal assessment and class work, students are provided an opportunity to work both independently and in pairs/groups. Emphasis is placed on collaborative, research-based peer learning. Students are encouraged to participate in class discussions and to engage creatively with the syllabus. The Department organised an open mic event based on Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, titled “Marooned”, in October 2021, a science fiction paper presentation competition in January 2022, a photography exhibition titled “Sophia Re-viewed”, in September 2022, in which photographs of Sophia College taken by students were displayed and discussed in class, and a modern adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in March 2023.

The Department of English has organised a wide range of events over the years. In addition to film screenings, stage productions, writing and theatre workshops, and competitions, the Department has organised various national and international conferences and seminars some of which are listed below:

  • a two-day international conference on “Mythology in Indian Culture, Literature and Art” in January 2020 in association with the Department of History, Sophia College
  • Nobel Oration: Lecture on the works of the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2020, Louise Glück, by Dr Sonya Nair from All Saints' College, Thiruvananthapuram, in February 2021
  • Talk by Dr Christian Busch, professor at New York University, on his book The Serendipity Mindset: The Art and Science of Creating Good Luck organised in collaboration with the Department of History, Sophia College, Literature Live! 360@Campus and Blank Slate Knowledge Foundation, in April 2021
  • Workshop on translation titled "Writing Across the Regions" by Dr Nabanita Sengupta in September 2021
  • Add-on Course on "Memory Studies" from November 2021 to January 2022
  • Nobel Oration: "Memories of Migrations: Introducing Abdulrazak Gurnah" by Dr Dhrupadi Chattopadhyay in February 2022
  • RUSA-supported student-led online international conference on the theme of diaspora, culture and identity titled “Qissa” in February 2022
  • Add-on course on "Posthumanism" from November 2022 to January 2023
  • RUSA-supported one-day conference on “Interrogating Masculinities in Contemporary Indian Literature and Culture” in January 2023
  • a RUSA-sponsored two-day multidisciplinary national-level workshop titled “Understanding Disability: Towards a Praxis of Inclusion” in February 2024, in collaboration with the Department of Sociology, Sophia College, Dr BMN College of Home Science, and the Centre for Disability Research and Training, Kirori Mal College, DU
  • Add-on Course on "Introduction to Urban Studies" from September 2023 - March, 2024

Ms Jihasa Vachharajani 

Head of the Department

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Areas of expertise and research interests: 

Travel Writing, Popular Culture, and Film Studies

DR. SAMRITA SENGUPTA SINHA

M.A. M.Phil. PhD (Assistant Professor)

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An alumnus of St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and the University of Calcutta, Samrita Sinha has expertise in Postcolonial Literatures, Critical Theory, Body and Sexuality Studies and Anglophone Literatures from the Northeastern borderlands of India. Her doctoral research is in the domain of Northeast Indian Anglophone Literatures. She has been the recipient of the Charles Wallace Research Grant for the academic year 2022-23, to pursue research at libraries in SOAS and British Library, London. The topic of her research project was, “Entangled Memories: A Humanistic Reappraisal of WWII in Post-Colonial Northeast India”. She completed two Minor Research Projects with grants received from Mumbai University and RUSA in 2018 and 2022 respectively. In 2018, she completed a Minor Research Project titled, “Negotiating Identity with Otherness: A Study of Select Literary Texts from Northeast India”. In 2022, she completed the RUSA sponsored Minor Research Project titled, “Registers of Protest: A Comparative Analysis of Poetic Voices of Dissent from Northeast India, Kashmir and the Dalit Community”. Apart from several publications, both national and international, Ms Samrita Sinha has been invited as resource person to deliver talks and lectures at various institutions like Wilson College, Mumbai, Jadavpur University and Vivekananda College, Kolkata. She was invited to conduct a course on Elizabethan Comedy at the English Department of Jadavpur University in 2014.

She was invited as a resource person to present her doctoral research work at the International Conference on South-South Feminisms organised by Stellenbosch University, South Africa in collaboration with SNDT University, Mumbai. She is a member of IACLALS and IPPL. Currently Ms Sinha is on the editorial boards of Vantage: Journal of Thematic Analysis a bi-annual research journal of Maitreyee College, University of Delhi and Sambhashan (Mumbai University Research Journal)·  Ms Sinha is a visiting Lecturer at PG Dept. of English at K.J. Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce and a guest lecturer at the Post-graduate Department of English, in S.N.D.T. Women’s University, Mumbai.

Ms Nishtha Dev

MA, MPhil 

 

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An alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University, Nishtha Dev joined Sophia College in 2013. She has also been associated with the English Department at SNDT University as an invited faculty since 2021. She completed her M.Phil. thesis titled “Translation and the Canon of Indian Literature” from Delhi University. She is currently pursuing Ph.D. on Contemporary Indian Graphic Narratives from SNDT University. In 2022, she completed a RUSA- supported Minor Research Project on “Translation and Twentieth Century Hindi Satires”. She has contributed to the syllabus development for the four-year BA B.Ed course, (English) Mumbai University and has prepared content for learning modules for School of Open Learning, Delhi University.

Ms Dev is a lifelong member of Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies which is an officially recognised Indian Chapter of International ACLALS.

Dr. Elwin Susan John

MA, M.Phil, Ph.D

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Dr Elwin Susan John joined the Department of English at Sophia College in 2015. Prior to this, she was a UGC-Senior Research Fellow at the University of Hyderabad, where she worked on the socio-cultural intersections between body and disease narratives. She was awarded an M.Phil in 2012 for her dissertation titled, Lure of the Body: Images of Health in Travel Literature. She was awarded a Ph.D degree in 2018 for her thesis titled, Skin Cultures: Reconfigurations of the Body through Narratives. Ever since, she has been actively involved in interdisciplinary research ventures along with full-time teaching. In 2022, she completed a RUSA-supported Minor Research Project on “Disability Studies and Indian Literature”. Dr John is a visiting faculty with the PG Department of English at K.J. Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce.

Her areas of expertise and research interests include 17th and 18th century British Literature, Indian Writing in English, Medical Humanities, Cultural Studies, Travel Studies, and Memory Studies. She has been guiding student research projects that pertain to these broad domains. She is a content writer for English literature courses at S N Open University, Kerala, and is on the editorial board of journals like Sambhasan (Mumbai University research journal), Sophia Lucid (college research journal for teachers) and Sophia Luminous (college research journal for students). She has contributed to the development of several syllabi, namely, Diploma Course in Memory Studies, University of Mumbai, the four-year BA B.Ed course (English), University of Mumbai, and the TYBA course on Introduction to Cultural Studies, University of Mumbai. She is a member of the Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies (IACLALS) which is an officially recognised Indian Chapter of International ACLALS, and the Indian Network for Memory Studies (INMS) which is the first Memory Studies network in India.

ORCID ID: 0009-0000-4633-0011

Dr (Sr) Ananda Amritmahal [RETIRED]

M.A., B.Ed., M. Phil., Ph. D., L.T.C.L. (Speech and Drama)

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Dr (Sr) Ananda Amritmahal was Principal of Sophia College for Women (Autonomous).
She is also Honorary Director of the Irene Heredia Sophia Centre for Women’s Studies and Development.

Her areas of specialisation include Women’s Writing and Feminist Literary Criticism, and Indian Writing in English. Her doctoral thesis was on “Feminist Critical Perspectives on Indian Women’s Writing, with special reference to Shashi Deshpande and Mahasweta Devi”. Her other research interests are Women Mystic Poets, Children’s Literature, and Feminist Theology.

Dr Amritmahal has written a book, Relatedness and Resistance: A Feminist Critical Analysis of Some Indian Women Writers, as well as a number of articles on women’s issues.

She was awarded the Smt. Savitridevi Phule Adarsh Shikshika Puraskar (prize for exemplary teachers) by the University of Mumbai, for her contribution to the field of women’s education and empowerment.

Dr Amritmahal was awarded the Fulbright Teaching Fellowship as Visiting Lecturer at Loyola University, Chicago, for the spring semester of 2012. She was also appointed the Gannon Visiting Research Scholar at Loyola during the same period.