Computer Awareness Survey

For

JNU Student Community

Organized by

 JNU Forum for Mutual Learning, Central Library 

Computer has become an essential part of our daily lives. Computer literacy varies from person to person according to one’s respective job. Many of us face difficulty in using computer. Very often we are not able to find the right person to guide us when we feel lost while using the computer. In order to address the difficulties faced by the users, we propose to organize a workshop which will focus on Computer Awareness, in the coming semesters. Moreover, we may conduct the workshop on a regular basis as per requirements and feedback from the participants.

            This survey aims to help us identify the needs of students by creating awareness about the use of computer and its applications. On the basis of feedback collected from this survey, we will design the course curriculum of the program and plan the sessions accordingly. We look forward to your valuable suggestions at the end of this survey in order to successfully organize the workshop.

         The workshop will be in two phases: First - for basic learner and; the second for the advanced learner. Date, time and venue of the workshop will be informed by e-mail and will be updated on the JNU website as well.

Kindly fill the survey form by clicking on the link below-

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1w_exlXZ-UjVAaq-pM5UfIQ0Ttq_GhGom4MV9kJLfQFs/viewform

or

http://www.jnu.ac.in/Library/JNUFOML/activities.htm

For any queries, you may contact us on- https://www.facebook.com/capjnu or

Gaurav- +91-8586968801/ Mahendar-+91-9990460960.

We are requested to regularly check your e-mail and the JNU website for more updates.

Prameha and Upadangsha: Vernacular Histories of Venereal Diseases in Late Colonial Bengal

Abstract

While the histories of colonial medicine have highlighted the hegemonic impact of western bio-medical notions on indigenous understanding of diseases, recent historians working with marginalized vernacular archives in the colonies have brought into focus the vernacular understanding of diseases that not only survived the onslaught of western clinical notions and therapeutic practices but got a fresh lease of life through the growth of a shared medical market of vernacular print and medicines. I would look at the vernacular histories of syphilis and gonorrhoea in the context of late colonial Bengal. Locally known as upadangsha and prameha, these indigenous categories of venereal diseases elicited much debate and discussion in the late 19th century Bengali public sphere, while indigenous understanding of these diseases, circulated through the local commercial circuits. Using commercial advertising material and vernacular medical print, I would try to recuperate the vernacular histories of venereal diseases in the context of late colonial Bengal. In doing so, I would question some of the assumptions held by colonial medical historians who overwhelmingly concentrate on state sponsored western medicine and in turn ignore the rich histories of vernacular medicine.

Speaker: Ratnabir Guha

Research Scholar, CHS, SSS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, Central Library, JNU

Date and Time: 16^th August 2014 (Saturday), 4:00 pm

In Search of the Real: Writing the Past in Colonial India

Abstract

During the colonial period, writing the past became central to the self-hood of colonial subjects. The past came to be written in different genres and its ethics and protocols were widely debated in the public domain. My paper deals with one aspect of this debate – the meaning of historical reality. I shall explore this with reference to the work of the Hindi novelist Vrindavanlal Verma (1889-1969) and a few other Hindi littérateurs of the late colonial period. Their work on historical subjects – poetry, play, novels – betrays an underlying tension between the positivist certitude about empirical facts and the romantic desire for a past that might not be accessed by positivist methods. I shall investigate this tension by examining their choice of form for narratives of the past and their use of oral and written sources for reconstructing the past. Falling outside the domain of professional history-writing, their works are indicative of the wider cultural tensions central to many post-colonial societies. Belying any totalizing narrative of modernity or colonial difference, they draw our attention to multiple oppositional discourses and practices within the West and the non-West and the complex web of interconnections between them.

Speaker:

Akash Bhattacharya

Research Scholar, CHS, SSS, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, Central Library, JNU

Date and Time: 9^th August 2014 (Saturday), 4:00 pm

 

On the Symbiotic Relationship between Institutions and Values: With Special Reference to Corruption

Abstract

Individuals are constrained to act within the framework of the societal institutions. The totality of actions by individuals in the society determines the outcomes at the social level. The nature of these outcomes determines which social values will be realized and which ones will not be realized. As individual values and preferences are not completely autonomous, in general being influenced by the dominant social values, the choice of institutional structure has profound implications for both individual and social values. The phenomenon of corruption ruptures the relationship between institutions and values in several different ways. An analysis of this process has the potential of enhancing one's understanding of how corruption of certain kinds can pose grave threats to the society.

Speaker:

Prof. Satish K. Jain

Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, SSS, JNU

Venue:  SSS I Committee Room, JNU

               Date and Time: 24^th April 2014 (Thursday), 4:30 pm

"Folk Performance” from an Ethnocentric to an Aesthetico-political Understanding

Abstract

On part of the mutual learning program, this paper would like to familiarize audience with some of the key debates around “folk performance” in India. Most often, such performance is viewed from an ethnocentric perspective which not only denies its political dimensions but also obfuscates its artistic and aesthetic factors. Indeed, folk performances have both an artistic and a political dimension and both go together in its creative process. The aesthetico-political framework attempts to reconcile both these elements together in its understanding of folk performance and its broader connection with culture and society. Thinking through language, landscape, rhythm, body and movement, this paper would like to discuss the aesthetic and the politics of Indian folk performance and its ongoing appropriation in corporate cultural industries and marginalization in academic discourses. The paper suggests that Indian folk performance is not a homogenous category, and therefore, the hierarchies within the folk society also need to be recognized.

                                 Speaker: Dr. Brahma Prakash

School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU

Venue:  Committee Room, Central Library, JNU

Date and Time: 17^th April 2014 (Thursday), 4:30 pm

The Invention of Hinduism for National Use

Abstract

This paper discusses the ways in which the category "Hinduism" became available for national use, as a political resource. It argues that various forms of Indian nationalism mobilised the term "Hindu" or variants thereof in a number of ways, and suggests that these uses, of "Hindu" as religion, race or nation, can be dated to very specific points in relatively recent time. 

Speaker:

Benjamin Zachariah

ICCR Professor, Halle University, Research Fellow, Karl Jaspers Centre, Heidelberg University

Venue:  Committee Room, Central Library, JNU

Date and Time: 15th March 2014 (Saturday), 4:30 pm

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