By Tarannum Ahmed
DEH Freshers’ Orientation Fall 2023
Each year, every new semester in the Department of English and Humanities of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh is kicked off with the triannual Freshers’ Orientation. The Fall semester of 2023 was no different. It was held on Saturday, October 7th, 2023 and the theme was “Discover…Connect…Excel”. Starting the program with her encouraging speech, Ms Arifa Ghani, Head of the Department, set the mood for the entire event with her optimism.
One of the main highlights of the event would absolutely have to be when both Professor Kaiser Haq, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities and Professor Shamsad Mortuza, Special Advisor to the ULAB Board of Trustees, gave inspirational speeches for all the freshers. They both spoke about building bonds, making connections, utilizing skills, and advised the students on how to become the best version of oneself.
And to inspire the freshers of the BA and MA English programs, this time the department welcomed back alumna Farzana Akter Tisha, Executive Officer and Associate Customer Service Manager at Citygem, an alumna of the department, to be the orientation speaker. Her speech on how she achieved success and how important participating in co-curricular activities is, was truly motivating. She also reminisced about her experience in the university and shared how beautiful it was.
Performances such as a song by Md. Shayon Mia (BA Batch 232) and Faisal Hasan Anik (BA Batch 232), poetry recitation by Mst. Suraiya Alam (BA Batch 231, or the last performance of the cultural segment by Jannatul Tasnia (Batch 232), Faisal Hasan Anik, and Md. Sayon Mia, brought warmth to the entire evening.
9th Curriculum Integration Program in Fall 2023
This year, the Department of English and Humanities organized the 9th Curriculum Integration Program consisting of two online forums. The theme this year was “Language as a Weapon”. Both forums explained the concept to students, as well as provided insights into how they can make connections with the course materials.
The first forum was conducted by Dr Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, who discussed how language, like a weapon, can influence a large group of people to conform as a result of societal and political pressure
The second forum was conducted by Dr Shamsad Mortuza, who focused on language weaponization in Literature and Culture, to explain manipulation of language and victimization as a result of language weaponization.
ULAB’s Big win at the 9th Inter-University Student Conference and Cultural Competition (also covered in your Limelight section)
Apart from hosting an immensely successful Inter-University Conference, ULAB knocked it out of the park when we won the Champion’s Award for Cultural Performance and joint Runner Up Award in the Academic Presentation at the 9th DEH Inter-University Student Conference and Cultural Competition held on October 19th and 20th. The theme of the conference was “Gender: The Binary and Beyond.
Critical Inquiry in Language Studies (CILS) Special Issue Launch
Held on November 6th, this Special Issue focused on “Centering Southern Perspectives in Translanguaging Research” and was guest-edited by Dr. Zhongfeng Tian, Department of Urban Education, Rutgers University–Newark, and Dr. Abu Saleh Mohammad Rafi, Department of English & Humanities, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh.
Professor Li Wei of University College London, UK, presented as the Discussant, with the participation of several influential theorists and prominent, as well as emerging, translanguaging scholars, this event proved to be exceptionally insightful on the subject.
Workshop on “Exam Wizardry”
Paper Canoe- ULAB Literary Society organized a workshop called “Workshop on Exam Wizardry: Pre-Exam and Exam Preparation” to help students prepare better for the upcoming exam season. This was conducted by the faculties Mehek Chowdhury and Anika Tahsin, who are both lecturers of the Department of English and Humanities.
DEH Graduate Seminar Fall 2023
Every term, the Department of English and Humanities organizes the Graduate Student Seminar where students from the MA in English program are nominated by their course instructors to present research papers that they wrote for class. The nominations are based on the quality of the paper they have produced. This is a wonderful opportunity for the graduate students to share their work and encourage others to be a part of the culture of knowledge sharing and research dissemination that are the hallmarks of the department. This term, the seminar was successfully held online, on 16th November.