Subhas Yadav, a PhD scholar from the Centre for Comparative Literature (CCL) has recently completed his 10 months ERASMUS Mundus scholarship (Sep 2017-July 2018) at the University of Extremadura, Spain. He was awarded this scholarship under “LEADER – Links in Europe and Asia for Engineering, Education, Enterprise and Research” scheme coordinated by University of Sannio, Italy, in which universities from many European countries like Greece, Portugal, Spain, Latvia and Slovenia also take part.
He applied for the scholarship position in Spain, and was successfully granted to carry out his research work at the University of Extremadura in Caceres. His PhD project at the University of Hyderabad is also on Hispanic theme, and this research stay has enriched his ongoing project. He was encouraged by the supervisor Prof. Tutun Mukherjee and supported at every step by the Centre for Comparative Literature to continue with the research stay abroad. He was part of Interdoc PhD programme at the University of Extremadura and tutored by Dr. Miguel Angel Lama an expert on 18th and 19th Hispanic literature.
During his ten months stay he has participated in doctoral workshops at the University of Extremadura, University of Jaen and University of Cordoba, and has been an active member of the Association of the Doctoral Students at the host university. Locally he was involved with the Adult Education Centre of the city popularly known as CEPA, and happily volunteered at the adjacent town hall at Sierra de Fuentes in their English conversation classes.
In his host country Spain, he presented papers titled “Decoloniality: its Seeds in India” at the international conference of the Spanish Association of Indian Interdisciplinary Studies in Barcelona, “Reception of Miguel Hernandez in India” in Alicante, “Reception of Quixote” in Caceres, and “Spanish in India” in the history city of Salamanca during Vth international congress on Spanish.
Subhas also travelled to Croatia, Czech Republic, and Colombia to present papers titled “Reception of Latin American Literature in India” at the University of Zagreb, “Language and Reality in Magical Realism” at Palacký University Olomouc and “Realismo mágico: el hilo cultural sur-sur”, at Universidad Javeriana in Bogota, respectively.
Since his PhD project hinges upon the writings of Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he considers this ERASMUS opportunity a magical moment in his career, as unintentionally it took him from Europe to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. He highly recommends his fellow students at the University of Hyderabad to apply for such scholarships.
Inputs from Subhas Yadav