A book chapter titled I Am as Big as the City I Walk: Documenting Maya Rao’s ‘The Walk’ by Dr Anannya Dasgupta, Director, Centre for Writing & Pedagogy (CWP) and Associate Professor of Literature, SIAS, Krea University, has been published in the anthology Contemporary Gender Formations in India. The book is edited by Nandini Dhar and published by Routledge, in March, 2024.
For details, click here.
Our four-member Indian Dance Crew from the SIAS, Krea University recently showcased their talents at Riviera, the cultural festival hosted by Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT). Led by Pramati Anand, the crew, including Alankrita Krishnan, Siri Jois, and Ananya KV, mesmerised the audience with their performances. While Pramati specialises in Kathak, Alankrita, Siri, and Ananya specialise in Bharatanatyam. The dynamic duo of Alankrita Krishnan and Siri Jois secured the third spot in the duet category. Congratulations!
Shreya Kabadi, a third-year student at SIAS, Krea University won the first prize in the photography competition at Abhisaranga, the annual fest hosted by the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Sri City. The preliminary online round witnessed 110 participants from various parts of the country, culminating in the showdown at IIIT, Sri City. Shreya expresses gratitude to the Media Lab for their invaluable support.
Dr Tanmoy Chakrabarty, Assistant Professor of Physics, SIAS, Krea University has been awarded a grant by the UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, An Autonomous Institution of University Grants Commission (UGC), under the Collaborative Research Scheme (CRS).
Dr Chakrabarty is the principal investigator in this project titled Exploring the magnetically ordered states in novel magneto-electric compounds. Dr Sumanta Chattopadhyay, Scientist-D at UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, Mumbai Centre is the principal collaborator on the project.
Professor Mukund Padmanabhan, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at SIAS, Krea University, recently launched his book The Great Flap of 1942: How the Raj Panicked over a Japanese Non-invasion at The Leela Bhartiya City in Bengaluru. Virender Razdan, General Manager of The Leela Bhartiya City Bengaluru, and the journalist Karan Thapar have been part of the event. The book launch has been featured in an article published in The Hindu.
Read the article published in The Hindu here.
Dr Sonia Ghalian, Visiting Assistant Professor of Literature at SIAS, Krea University presented a paper at the International Online Symposium on Queer Children’s Film and Television, co-organized by the University of Cambridge and the University of Glasgow on 1 March, 2024.
The paper titled (Im)Possibility of Queerness in Indian Children’s Films directs attention to a fundamental yet frequently overlooked connection between being queer and being a child. The talk focused on the ideological, economic as well as cultural contours of the Indian context to highlight the impossibility of the connection and its lack of adequate representation in Indian cinema. The paper strives to highlight certain children’s films that navigate these identities beyond societal norms to acknowledge such characters’ differences— their struggles for acceptance because of them—but just as importantly to acknowledge their sameness, their shared existences, and their mutual bonds with the larger community.
Dr Vivek Tewary, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at SIAS, Krea University, delivered a talk at the Workshop on Multi-scale Analysis / Conference on Differential Equations (MSADE-24) held at IIT Ropar from 26 February to 2 March, 2024.
The workshop focuses on multiscale methods in mathematics, particularly as they apply to questions of homogenization, control theory, and inverse problems. Mathematicians are developing new tools to investigate multiscale phenomena that arise in the design of new materials.
Dr Tewari delivered a lecture on Bloch wave homogenisation of periodic media. Bloch waves are special waves supported by periodic media and can be used in various applications in physical models. They are also used in homogenisation – where one studies approximations of highly heterogeneous media. Dr Tewari talked about the existence of Bloch waves and demonstrated their use in finding a macroscopic approximation for highly heterogeneous periodic media.
Sayantan Datta, Assistant Professor of Practice at the the Centre for Writing and Pedagogy (CWP), Krea University, and a children’s book author, was a speaker in a panel discussion titled STEM With Stories: A Webinar on Fuelling Curiosity and Shaping STEM MIndsets. The panel was organised by Storyweaver by Pratham Books, and took place on 28 February, 2024. Other panelists included Sarit Sharma (Co-founder, Aavishkaar), Neha Parti (Director Schools, Quest Alliance), Veena Prasad (author), Sampad Mohapatra (journalist) and Seema Acharya (teacher). In this panel, Sayantan discussed the need for children’s literature in STEM fields, and their process behind creating a STEM-focussed children’s book.
For more information, click here.
Sayantan also delivered a special lecture on the lived experiences of queer, transgender, and intersex persons in the Indian science ecosystem, at the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, Bengaluru. Titled Trans as Transformation: Queer, Transgender and Intersex Persons in the Indian Science Ecosystem, the event took place 1 March 2024.
For more information, click here.
Dr Swarnamalya Ganesh, Assistant Professor of Practice, SIAS, Krea University has been invited as the First South Indian artiste to grace the stage of the Faiz Festival 2024, held on 9-11 February, 2024.
Dr Ganesh had the honour of delivering remarks at the festival’s opening ceremony, alongside Salima Hashmi, daughter of Faiz Saab, and other esteemed Pakistani dignitaries. Her performance took place in a packed hall at the Alhamra Arts Center, SADIR – Beyond Borders. Over the course of 90 minutes, she presented a diverse repertoire in Deccani, Urdu, Telugu, drawing from her extensive research in multicultural histories of performance. Through song, dance, and spoken word, she emphasised the role of the arts as a means of fostering dialogue – a crucial endeavour, particularly in light of the failure of politicians to bridge divides, which only serves to exacerbate partisan tensions and religious animosity. The evening concluded with a rendition of Hum Dekhenge, Faiz Saab’s poetry of hope, resilience and revolution, translated by the theatre director Mangai and sung by Anjana and Bindumalini.
“I told the audience, how in the chalice of my heart, I have long nestled a longing to see them – Lahore! The performance moved me and every one in the 400 odd packed hall to tears. We all shared our tears of loss and hope through the arts,” remarks Dr Ganesh. “To be an artiste is to be able to connect with the world. Going to Lahore and Pakistan showed me how the heart can ache when happiness and togetherness is ‘so near, yet so far’. I crossed the border by foot at Wagah-Attari, and that by itself is an experience worth sharing with our Krea community, not to mention the amazing people I met in Pakistani, their culture and sense for our combined history. A look at us from the outside, is a reality check, indeed.”
Professor S Sivakumar, Dean, Research and Professor of Physics at SIAS, Krea University has written a science article titled Are ‘colour molecules’ the key to a room-temperature quantum computer?, published in The Hindu.
The article explores the intriguing possibility of utilising chromophores or ’colour molecules’ as a potential solution for achieving room temperature quantum computing. Unlike traditional quantum systems that are expensive as they require extremely low temperatures to function, the application of ‘colour molecules’ could significantly reduce the complexity and cost of quantum computing setups. The article delves into the principles behind this concept, highlighting recent advancements and the challenges that lie ahead in realising this vision of room temperature quantum computing using ‘colour molecules’.
Read the article here.
A version of the article can be found in The Madras Tribune. Read the article here.