Vol. 92, Issue 4
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A Multicultural Experience at NCCU
Workshop explores South Asia
By Walter Pittman
Echo Staff Writer
The Triangle South Asia Consortium, a group of educators from area universities, and the NCCU Department of English brought a little South Asian culture to NCCU on Nov. 11-12.
The South Asia through Literature and Film workshop, held at the Alphonzo Elder Student Union, was the first in a series designed to promote the study of South Asia in the Triangle.
It was geared to instruct educators on the use of film and literature for teaching South Asian culture.
TSAC promotes scholarship and research into the cultures and languages
of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
NCCU computer science graduate Parthasarathy Aji plays the mridangam, a South Asian instrument. Walter Pittman/Echo Staff Photographer |
NCCU Director of International Programs, Eugene Eaves, who opened the program with N.C. State University Professor Tony Stewart, stressed the need for the integration of the study of foreign countries into Central’s curriculum.
In the first Saturday session, University of Connecticut professor Patrick Hogan spoke on the portrayal of emotion, ethics and violence in the films “The Bandit Queen” and “The Home and the World.”
The second session had University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor Allan R. Life showing clips from Jean Renoir’s classic film about India, “The River.” Life discussed Renoir’s use of colors and symbols to portray South Asia.
During a lunch catered by Sitar India Palace, Partha-sarathy Aji, an NCCU computer science graduate, played the mridangam an Indian percussion instrument.
After lunch, Duke University professor Satti Khanna spoke on the Indian cinema and the South Asian worldview. Khanna encouraged the group to view the presentation with “an open heart and mind.”
In the last Saturday session, University of Minnesota professor Keya Ganguli explored the work of Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
The Saturday workshop concluded with an evening of Indian dance with Duke University professor Mekhala Devi and some of her dance students.
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| University of Minnesota
Professor Keya Ganguli speaks on Indian film artist Satyajit Ray.
Walter Pittman/Echo Staff Photographer |
The workshop’s coordinator, NCCU English professor Mary Mathews, is also NCCU’s TCAS’s campus coordinator.
“South Asia is a region rich in literary importance. It should definitely
be a bigger part of the curriculum,” said Mathews, who is guiding efforts
to bring the study of South Asian languages to NCCU.