The Salerno Conference on Bangladeshi English Novels: From Emergence to Efflorescence (24-25 June)

Published at 04:52 pm June 23rd, 2021

The two-day festival begins on Thursday

The history and development of Bangladeshi English literature is closely bound up with the political vicissitudes of the Indian subcontinent. Some of the major events of the region—the partition of the Bengal Presidency in 1905 and its reversal in 1911, the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, the language movement of 1952 in East Pakistan, the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 and the socio-economic sea-change the country experienced in the 1990s—all had profound impacts on this tradition of literature. Although the first Bangladeshi English novel, namely Begum Rokeya’s Sultana’s Dream, came out in 1905, it is only in the 1990s that this category of literature gained some momentum. The second decade of the twenty-first century witnessed the publication of some of the best works in this category, such as K. Anis Ahmed’s The World in My Hands (2013), Zia Haider Rahman’s In the Light of What We Know (2014), Numair Atif Choudhury’s Babu Bangladesh! (2019) and so on, marking what Kaiser Haq, the foremost Bangladeshi poet writing in the English language, called an “efflorescence” to describe the present status of Bangladeshi English literature.

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Day 1: 24 June 2021

Inaugural Ceremony: 9.10 – 9.50 (Italian time), 13.10 – 13.50 (Bangladeshi time)

Guests:

Professor Carmine Pinto, Director of the Doctorate in Literary, Linguistic and Historical Studies, UNISA

Professor Virgilio D'Antonio, Delegate of the Rector, UNISA

Chairs:

Mariano Ciarletta, PhD Candidate, DIPSUMDILLS, UNISA (Italian)

Dr. Khan Touseef Osman, Convenor, The Salerno Conference (English)

Keynote Address: 10.00 – 10.50 (Italian time), 14.00 – 14.50 (Bangladeshi time)

Keynote Speaker: Professor Kaiser Haq, Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)

Session Chair: Professor Niaz Zaman, Advisor, Department of English and Modern Languages, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)

Plenary Addresses: 11.00 – 11.50 (Italian time), 15.00 – 15.50 (Bangladeshi time)

Plenary Speaker 1: Professor Maswood Akhter, Department of English, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Plenary Speaker 2: Professor Cara Cilano, Department of English, Michigan State University

Session Chair: Professor Mashrur Shahid Hossain, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University

Break: 12.00 – 13.00 (Italian time), 16.00 – 17.00 (Bangladeshi time)

Parallel Sessions: 13.00 – 14.00 (Italian time), 17.00 – 18.00 (Bangladeshi time)

A: Trauma and Representation

Presenter 1: Abdul Wahid Dippro, Lecturer, English Department, Jashore University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh

Presenter 2: Anika Saba, Senior Lecturer, Department of English and Humanities, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, BRAC University

Presenter 3: Muhammad Nurul Islam, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP)

Chair: Dr. Farzana Akhter, Chairperson & Associate Professor, Department of English, East West University

B: Beyond the Nation

Presenter 1: Sadia Afreen, Lecturer, Department of English, East West University, Bangladesh

Presenter 2: Qazi Arka Rahman, Doctoral Student, Department of English, West Virginia University

Presenter 3: Rakibul Hasan Khan, PhD Candidate, University of Otago, New Zealand

Chair: Dr. M. Shafiqul Islam, Associate Professor, Department of English, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh

Panel Discussion: 14.10 – 15.10 (Italian time), 18.10 – 19.10 (Bangladeshi time)

Interrogating Bangladeshi English Novels

Panellist 1: Professor Razia Sultana Khan, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)

Panellist 2: Professor Kaiser Haq, Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)

Panellist 3: Professor Himadri Lahiri, Department of English, Netaji Subhas Open University, India

Chair: Asif Iqbal, PhD Candidate, Michigan State University, USA

Day 2: 25 June 2021

Keynote Address: 9.00 – 9.50 (Italian time), 13.00 – 13.50 (Bangladeshi time)

Keynote Speaker: Professor Fakrul Alam, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Research Institute for Peace and Liberty, and UGC Professor, Department of English, University of Dhaka

Session Chair: Professor Shamsad Mortuza, VC (Acting), University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)

Plenary Addresses: 10.00 – 10.50 (Italian time), 14.00 – 14.50 (Bangladeshi time)

Plenary Speaker 1: Professor Sabiha Huq, English Discipline, Khulna University

Plenary Speaker 2: Dr. Sarker Hasan Al Zayed, Associate Professor, Department of English and Humanities (DEH), University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)

Session Chair: Professor Ahmed Ahsanuzzaman, Department of English and Modern Languages, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)

Parallel Sessions: 11.00 – 12.00 (Italian time), 15.00 – 16.00 (Bangladeshi time

A: The Space of the Nation

Presenter 1: Hafiz Shahrear Faisal, Independent Researcher, Bangladesh

Presenter 2: S. M. Mahfuzur Rahman, Lecturer, School of General Education, BRAC University

Presenter 3: Rajib Ahmed, Independent Researcher, Netherlands

Chair: Dr. M. Shafiqul Islam, Associate Professor, Department of English, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh

B: History, Identity and Adaptation

Presenter 1: Nishat Atiya, Lecturer, Department of English and Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB)

Presenter 2: Manmay Zafar, Associate Professor, Department of English, Jahangirnagar University

Presenter 3: Dr. Shah Ahmed Ripon, Assistant Professor, Department of English, East Delta University, Bangladesh

Chair: Dr. Farzana Akhter, Head and Associate Professor, Department of English, East West University, Bangladesh

Break: 12.00 – 13.00 (Italian time), 16.00 – 17.00 (Bangladeshi time)

Panel Discussion: 13.10 – 14.10 (Italian time), 17.10 – 18.10 (Bangladeshi time)

Writing Bangladesh in Novels

Panellist 1: Saad Z. Hossain, Novelist

Panellist 2: Arif Anwar, Author

Panellist 3: Nadeem Zaman, Author

Chair: Ikhtisad Ahmed, Writer and Poet

Closing Ceremony: 14.20 – 15.00 (Italian time), 18.20 – 19.00 (Bangladeshi time)

Conference Observation and Future Perspective: Professor Lily Want, Former Dean, School of Arts, Languages & Literatures, and Former Head, Department of English, University of Kashmir

Vote of Thanks: Professor Stefan Heinz Maria Nienhaus, Supervisor, The Salerno Conference

Chair: Dr. Khan Touseef Osman, Convenor, The Salerno Conference