The Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad organised a one day seminar on the topic ‘Bodily Habitations: Cinema, Caste, Religious and Gender Practices’ on 12th March, 2020 at the Zakir Hussain Lecture Hall complex in the campus. The sessions went on from 11 am to 7 pm. Six speakers from different fields of work came and spoke in six different well organized sessions. The distinguished speakers included Dr. Carmel Christy, Dr. Pooja Satyogi, Dr. Navaneetha Mokkil, Prof. Anindita Mukhopadhyay, Dr. Shiju Sam Varghese and Dr. Sumeet Mhaskar. It was event open-for-all and students from different departments attended the various sessions.
In a session titled ‘New Spaces, New Bodies: a Case Study of Bengal,’ Prof. Anindita Mukhopadhyay said, “Schooling and education itself were bodied relocation away from the family for girls, which was feared obviously in Bengal.” In another session on matters of caste in campus spaces, Dr. Pooja Satyogi recalling her own teaching days remarked that every classroom was marked by race challenges and risks. She went on elaborating the caste dynamics that play at multiple levels in a diverse classroom. Dr. Navaneetha Mokkil from JNU presented her research on how bodies were differently encountered lately using technology, especially in the Malayalam film industry. Quite interestingly, she picked some non-mainstream movies like Shavam, Akam, Orivu Divasathe Kali etc for her study.
Most of the students found the sessions interesting and stayed back until the end of the whole programme.
–Nimisha S Pradeep, Department of Communication