Ashoka University is delighted to launch the new MA programme in English. The programme will train students to read literature and culture in the context of an interdisciplinary liberal arts curriculum, under the guidance of internationally acclaimed faculty who are innovative teachers as well as prolifically published scholars. The programme aims to occupy an important space in the current landscape of higher education in India. It will provide a unique intellectual experience for students while carving out a much-needed path to higher studies both abroad and within India. The MA in English is committed to think across boundaries of genre, culture, and chronology. The coursework allows for exposure to a wide array of texts, theories and disciplinary formations from around the world. MA students will also have the opportunity to pursue courses in other departments at Ashoka thus bringing new lenses to bear on literary studies. But above all, the students will pursue their study of literature in relation to the larger world they live in and ask pertinent questions of it. The programme also places a premium equally on rigorous critical thinking and in-depth research. This emphasis on rigour, alongside the other avenues for intellectual, professional and personal growth offered by Ashoka University, will better prepare students for a variety of career paths, including further study leading to a PhD, teaching at the high-school level, advertising, media, and law. Read more... |
|
|
Challenges/Strategies in Teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in Higher Education in India The Centre for Writing and Communication (CWC) is delighted to call for papers for its April 2020 conference on teaching English for Academic Purposes (EAP) in colleges and universities in India. Last date to submit abstracts is January 15. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses were introduced in the U.K. to support English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in universities. The movement expanded to include academic writing instruction and pedagogy suitable to the context of higher education. These courses can be broadly categorised into two: linguistic support courses offered to English as Second Language (ESL) students and academic skill-based workshops or courses offered to all students regardless of their language levels. While the latter focuses heavily on developing academic literacy - critical thinking and writing skills specific to academics - the former focuses on supporting students who struggle with communicating in English. Designed to introduce students to pedagogic genres that are specific to academic writing and prepare them for a reading-based curriculum, EAP focuses on learners’ needs and language skills that are unique to the requirements of a university. In India, several English for Specific Purposes (ESP) projects began when the Education Commission (1946-1966) acknowledged the role of English as a library language. A functional approach to the teaching of English was undertaken and ESP courses targeting graduate teachers, competitive examinations and professionals were initiated. However, ESP did not expand to include EAP in universities and colleges offering humanities and social sciences in India. Writing and literacy in academic contexts are dependent to no small extent on the ability to transfer and use the knowledge acquired in the classroom. In the process of this knowledge transfer, students are expected to produce ‘good’ research adhering to the rules of academic discourse, link multiple sources to their writing, use discipline-specific vocabulary and develop a ‘unique voice’, all the while writing grammatically correct sentences. While, the production of an academic paper involves a combination of advanced cognitive and language skills, in the Indian English as Second Language (ESL) context, achieving ‘academic excellence’ meets additional hurdles, when the medium of instruction is often inaccessible. Read more... |
|
|
A Conference on topics in Mathematical Analysis The Mathematics Conference at Ashoka University held on December 18-19 started with a talk by Barry Simon, IBM Professor of Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology as well as one of the leading figures in mathematical physics and mathematics in the world, on Mathematicians behind significant advances in Mathematics. The conference continued with talks on Matrix Analysis, C*- and von-Neuman algebras, function spaces and random operators. The speakers and participants were from various universities and institutes from the NCR and North India and two of them were from the USA. The conference concluded with an expectation from the participants that there will be an annual conference on mathematical analysis in the NCR region. |
|
|
Conference on Empirical and Computational Social Sciences in India Ashoka's Trivedi Centre for Political Data organised the second annual conference on ‘Empirical and Computational Social Sciences in India’ from December 15-17, 2019. During the first two days of the conference, participants presented their research and on the last day, TCPD organised a computational workshop where they had 3 sessions and over 50 participants, with most of them being from outside Ashoka. The purpose of the workshop was to give an introduction to varying data and methods that are used to answer social science questions. |
|
|
Third Annual Economics Conference The Department of Economics at Ashoka University hosted its 3rd Annual Economics Conference from December 14-16, 2019 with an aim to bring together researchers working in different fields of economics. The conference got off to an excellent start with the session on Experimental and Behavioural Economics. The session, chaired by Dr. Abinash Borah of the Department of Economics, consisted of 3 invited talks followed by an hour-long panel and audience discussion about the state of economics. The first talk by Dr. Sanjit Dhami of the University of Leicester looked at the role of guilt and shame in individual and joint liability microfinance contracts wherein Dr. Jeevant Rampal of IIM Ahmedabad presented a model of a 2 stage intra-group and inter-group contest. The final talk by Puneet Arora from Georgia State University attempted to look at the impact of 'fineness' of grading on educational performance through a Randomized Control Trial (RCT). The session culminated in a closing panel and audience discussion on the state of 'Pedagogy, Praxis, and Policy in Economics'. This discussion resulted in thought-provoking critiques and analysis of ideas at the heart of neoclassical economic theory and methodology, and the possible ways to improve the field through a multidisciplinary approach that takes into account ideas from disciplines like psychology and sociology'. Day 2 of the conference consisted of two broad sessions tied together by three presentations each. The morning session on Applied Microeconomics was chaired by Dr. Ashwini Deshpande of the Economics Department. The first talk of the session was delivered by Dr. Aman Ullah of the University of California, Riverside who described the journey of data-based non-parametric models in econometrics and empirical economics and its increasing relevance in the modern context of machine learning. The second talk by Dr. Amrita Dhillon of King's College, London examined the role of social and caste connections in improving efficiency and solving the coordination problem in a field experimental setting in factories. The final talk of the session by Dr. Anisha Sharma of Ashoka University looked at the role of difference in preferences and expectations in college major choice by gender. The final day started with a session on Macroeconomics by Dr. Mausumi Das of the Delhi School of Economics who put forward a model that looks dynamically at the relationship between the culture of corruption and long-run economic growth. Dr. Shankha Chakraborty of the University of Oregon proposed a model of aspirations, patience and 'pro-capitalist' values in explaining the structural transformation of economies, and attempted to give empirical evidence by calibrating the model to explain the Industrial revolution. Dr. Abhimanyu Gupta of the University of Essex used evidence from the syndicated loan market in the United States to look at potential spillovers from banking networks. The conference ended with the final talk by Dr. Mathieu Faure from Aix-Marseilles University's presentation which looked at the persistence of disagreements and equilibrium consensus in the very long horizon. |
|
|
Winter Entrepreneurship Trek The Centre for Entrepreneurship organised a Winter Entrepreneurship Trek for the Ashoka students from December 16-18, 2019 with the vision of acceleration entrepreneurial growth through startup immersion. The programme kicked-off on December 16 in Noida with a Case Study, which was followed by a visit to the Inshorts office and an Urban Farming masterclass at Prodigal Farms. On December 17, the cohort accumulated in Delhi to participate in the Jugaad Innovation Challenge, followed by a visit to Quicksand (Design Thinking) and Swechha India. On December 18, the cohort visited the offices and co-working spaces in Gurgaon including The Circle, Zomato, and UIncept. |
|
|
AIM SmartCity Accelerator Programme The second learning lab for the 4th edition of the AIM SmartCity Accelerator Programme was conducted in IIM Ahmedabad on December 14 and 15, 2019. The two days included sessions and workshops from academicians and industry experts on value proposition, innovation, and design thinking, pitching through an investor's lens, unit economics, social entrepreneurship, and public policy, and scaling-up. |
|
|
Meet your YIF Alumni Ashoka’s Alumni Relations Office organised the Bangalore Chapter reunion on December 14, 2019. Approximately 50 alumni joined this event. The event started with the 'Meet your YIF alumni' session where prospective applicants interacted with the alumni and discussed different aspects and life at the fellowship. This interactive session is followed by several guest sessions. Ravi Sreedharan, Founder ISDM; Jayna Kothari, co-founder of Centre for Law and Policy Research; Yogesh Parmar, a leading behavioral scientist and the founder of GameChangers and Harshitha Suresh, the acting QA lead at Finastra were invited as guest speakers. They spoke on the intricacies of professional life and beyond, about breaking barriers and stereotypes and many more. |
|
|
Camera Obscura: Workshop on writing speculative fiction Ashoka's Centre for Writing and Communication will be organising a one-day workshop in writing speculative fiction with writer Anil Menon. It will target students who are stepping into the waters of creative writing and find themselves drawn to writing based on concepts and speculative situations, with prose that probes the unknown and unusual, while bending the laws of seeming reality and make it work under unique conceits. Date: January 25, 2020 |
|
|
Listening To Those Who Make Community Libraries As part of Ashoka's Centre for Writing and Communication's creative programme series, this particular programme is a conversation with library activist Mridula Koshy from The Community Library Project, discussing ways in which an open community library enables certain forms of pedagogy and the manner in which this is determined by the geography of a place where the community is based. We will also be listening to life-experiences of young students who are members in the library. |
|
|
Ramanujan and $q$-continued fractions A talk by Professor Gaurav Bhatnagar Date: January 21, 2020 Time: 1:30 - 2:30 PM |
|
The Mathematics of Politics A talk by Professor Werner Kirsch Date: January 28, 2020 Time: 1:30 - 2:30 PM |
|
|
By the Office of Communications and Media Relations |
|
|
|
|
