Chennai, Mar 18:
The Department of Anthropology in collaboration with Vanamaa Art, Educational and Cultural Trust, Chennai, conducted a Two-day International Conference on “Culture on Crossroads?” in which over 250 faculties and students from various universities and colleges, presented and participated.
The first day of the conference was held on 14th March 2024 from 10:30pm to 1:30pm.
The inaugural session commenced with the Welcome address by Dr. M.P. Damodaran, Head of the department of Anthropology and Convener of the conference.
The conference was inaugurated by Dr. B. V. Sharma, Director of Anthropological Survey of India, who explained the aspects and transmission of culture where family plays a major role.
The Presidential address was given by Dr. S. Elumalai, Registrar of the university,
where he mentioned about the evolution of culture and challenged the crossroads it is experiencing along with the rise in technology.
Dr. Swarna Malya, Cultural Historian, KREA University, was the Guest of Honour.
She shared her thoughts on what cultures are, its diversity and its importance and she
quoted “Culture is you” and “We all are equals yet unique through our cultural
differences”.
Followed by a special lecture from Dr. Chandralekha, Former Dean of Humanities and
Sciences of Dr. MGR Educational Institute and University on the intersection of cultures
The inaugural session came to an end with Vote of Thanks by Dr. Prabhu Kumari
Vanama, the co-convener and organizing Secretary of the Conference.
The afternoon’s session (3pm to 5:30pm) commenced with a special lecture by Dr. Ananta Kumar Giri, who talked about what lies beyond cross cultures.
It was followed by the 1st technical session from where Assistant Professors of Post Graduate and Research Department of Historical Studies of Government Arts College for Men, Dr. M. Palani and Dr. J. Sadayamuthu preceded as the Chair and Co-chair
respectively.
There were six presentations in this session. All the presenters focused on how various ideas, disciplines, concepts and issues overlap with cultures.
Simultaneously, competition and cultural exhibitions were held where participants took part in Poster making, Crafts and Culinary exhibition on the theme “Cultural diversity”.
The judges for the competition were Ms. Arokiya Anbazhagi, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Women’s Christian College and Dr. Sasikala, Head of the Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Madras.
The first day of the International Conference concluded with a talk by the chairperson Dr. M Palani.
The second day was held on March 15. It started with the 2nd technical session from 9:15 – 10:30 am with 8 presenters who presented a large variety of disciplines that interact with culture from street art to food, from uniform civil code to globalization.
This session was chaired by Dr. M.P. Damodaran – Head of the Department of Anthropology.
It was followed by the 3rd technical session from 10:45am – 1pm chaired by Dr. Pareshwar Sahoo – Assistant professor in the department of History at Utkal University and co-chaired by Dr. T Kausalyakumari – Head of the department of History – Ethiraj College. There were 7 presenters who focused on the topics such as women’s participation in politics, menstrual hygine, archaeology, culture in early Madras and cultural identity vs intellectual property rights.
Simultaneously, a parallel technical session was held online at 10:30am which was chaired by Prof. Mallika Begum – assistant professor at SIET. There were 4 presenters in total, concentrating on the topics – Healthcaren among Adiyan and Mavidan Community, Challenges faced by Tribes post covid, Exploring collecting honey practices among the Alu Kurumbaas and Cultural influences on Childhood Obesity.
Concurrent to both the sessions, Rangoli Competition was held with the participation of 7 teams from various colleges judged by Prof. Brinda – Ambedkar Law College.
It was followed by Saritha Bowmick Endowment Lectureship where Dr. B. Bindu – Former Professor and Head of the department of Anthropology, Kannur University was invited as the speaker. She discerned her thoughts on the anthropological research post Covid-19 and on the vulnerables where the former experienced the raise of digital era and the latter experienced the influence by the anthropologists on restudying social flexibility, intimacy and sexuality.
The second day of the conference came to an end with the Valedictory session. The Welcome address was given by Dr. Prabhu Kumari Vanama – the co-convener and organizing Secretary of the Conference.
It was followed by a report on the Two Day – International Conference by Aishwariya Wincy – 1st year MA Anthropology student, University of Madras. Presidential address was given by Dr. M.P. Damodaran, Head of the department of Anthropology and Convener of the conference.
The session moved on to the Chief Guest Address by Prof. CMK Reddy – President of the TN Medical Practitioners Association and the Chairman of Linguistic Minorities Forum of Tamil Nadu.
Following which Dr. G.J. Sudhakar who is a Professor Emeritus from CPR Institute of Indological Research was awarded with the Life Time Achievement Award and later, discoursed his words of wisdom with the audience.
Prof. Pareshwar Sahoo – Assistant Professor in the department of History at Utkal University was called to distribute the certificates to all the presenters, winners and participants.
The Valedictory Address was given by Prof. K.S. Sarwani – Director at IQAC, TN Ambedkar Law University.
The Valedictory session was concluded with the Vote of Thanks by Ms. M. Rajam -Guest Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Madras followed by a photo
session.
