The Department of History at the University of Hyderabad and the University of Glasgow organised an International Workshop on ‘Languages and Traditions of Challenge and Change’ at Hotel Indraprastha, Kottayam, in Kerala. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the Inter University Centre for Social Science Research & Extension (IUCSSRE), Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam and the Association for Comparative Studies (Tapasam), during 14-16 December 2025. It brought together around fifteen young researchers to present their ongoing research in the area of climate change adaptation and resilience. These presentations dealt with multiple sites of historical and contemporary climate challenge, community responses and cultural resources that represent such crisis, resistance and adaptation. They reflect interdisciplinary approaches in finding sustainable solutions to climate change and developing cultures of resilience, focussed largely on the Malabar coast and drew largely from resources in Malayalam language, literature, and the performance arts, combining lived traditions with textual and archival research.
The workshop also had participation of senior academicians who delivered keynote speeches and served as discussants to the presentations of young researchers. Prof. Rajan Gurukkal (Vice Chairman, Kerala State Higher Education Council), Prof. Mahmood Kooria (Department of History, University of Edinburgh, UK) and Prof. Jakelin Troy (University of Sydney) delivered keynote presentations. Dr. Ophira Gamliel (University of Glasgow), Dr. John Reuben Davies (University of Glasgow) and Dr. V.J. Varghese (Department of History, University of Hyderabad) also took part in the conference.
Hafis C (Research Scholar, Department of History, University of Hyderabad) presented his paper ‘Shipbuilding and maritime Imagination in the Folk Ballads of Medieval Malabar’ in the conference. The conference was organised under the aegis of ‘Merchant Ships and Forest Groves: Indigenous Knowledge Systems in Eco-Sensitive Zones of the Malabar Coast’, a collaborative project of the University of Glasgow and the University of Hyderabad, funded by the Glasgow Centre for International Development (GCID), and was coordinated by Dr. Ophira Gamliel, Dr. V.J. Varghese, Dr. John Davies and Prof. K.M. Seethi (Director, IUCSSRE).
