As a part of Decennial celeebrations of CREST,, a talk on 'Decolonizing English: Dalits, Hierarchy and Language" by Meena Kandasamy was organised on March 17, 2012 at Hotel Alakapuri Auditorium , Calicut. Meena Kandasamy is a poet, writer, activist and translator. She is one of the most well known Dalit poets of India writing in English, Previously, she edited ‘The Dalit’, a bi-monthly English magazine . Her works maintain a focus on caste annihilation, linguistic identity and feminism. She has published two collections of poetry, Touch (2006) and Ms Militancy (2010).She was a Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the School of English, University of Kent, Canterbury (UK) and a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Creative Writing, Newcastle University (UK) in 2010. Her translations, among others include Political essays of Thol. Thirumavalavan, (2003) . Point-Blank, Poems of Tamil poet Kasi Anandan, ( 2005) and Essays of Periyar EV Ramasamy on women’s rights (2007) , She is the co-author of Ayyankali: Dalit leader of organic protest (2008) Meena was the youngest person ever to represent India as a writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program 2009.
She was a featured poet at the City of Asylum Jazz Poetry Concert 2009 held in Pittsburgh, USA, 14th Poetry Africa International Festival in October 2010 in Durban, DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2011, Blue Metropolis Literature Festival (Montreal) and the Ottawa Writers’ Festival 2011.She holds a PhD in socio-linguistics from Anna University Chennai. She is now working on her first novel The Gypsy Goddess. She lives in Chennai. Please see the attachment for details . Meena Kandasamy is a poet, writer, activist and translator. She is one of the most well known Dalit poets of India writing in English, Previously, she edited ‘The Dalit’, a bi-monthly English magazine . Her works maintain a focus on caste annihilation, linguistic identity and feminism. She has published two collections of poetry, Touch (2006) and Ms Militancy (2010).She was a Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the School of English, University of Kent, Canterbury (UK) and a Visiting Fellow at the Department of Creative Writing, Newcastle University (UK) in 2010. Her translations, among others include Political essays of Thol. Thirumavalavan, (2003) . Point-Blank, Poems of Tamil poet Kasi Anandan, ( 2005) and Essays of Periyar EV Ramasamy on women’s rights (2007) , She is the co-author of Ayyankali: Dalit leader of organic protest (2008) Meena was the youngest person ever to represent India as a writer-in-residence at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program 2009. She was a featured poet at the City of Asylum Jazz Poetry Concert 2009 held in Pittsburgh, USA, 14th Poetry Africa International Festival in October 2010 in Durban, DSC Jaipur Literature Festival 2011, Blue Metropolis Literature Festival (Montreal) and the Ottawa Writers’ Festival 2011.She holds a PhD in socio-linguistics from Anna University Chennai. She is now working on her first novel The Gypsy Goddess. She lives in Chennai. The lecture was attended by an audience of more than 150 including academics, students, researchers and civil society members. The lecture got good media attention and was covered by all leading newspapers and channels
The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIMK) and the CREST , Calicut have launched a series of Public Lectures from 2011 onwards to bring to the wider society the latest trends in social researches on issues concerning Indian and Global social reality. The Inaugural Lecture of the IIMK-CREST series was delivered at IIMK on March 8, 2011 by Dr.Thomas E. Weisskopf, Professor of Economics (Emeritus), University of Michigan, an internationally acclaimed economist and public intellectual who has written extensively on Indian and global themes. Delivering the lecture entitled ‘Rethinking Affirmative Action in Admission to Higher Education’, Prof. Weisskopf emphasized the importance of affirmative action like reservation for admission for disadvantaged groups in premier academic institutions of India as it is conducive for attaining decision making positions in job market. The Lecture series was inaugurated by Prof.Debashis Chattrejee, Director, IIMK. Prof.D.D.Nampoothiri , Executive Director, CREST welcomed the gathering and vote of thanks was proposed by Prof.Shubhasis Dey,Facuty, IIMK
