The postgraduate department of English of St Joseph’s Evening College (Autonomous) in collaboration with CHRIST (Deemed to be University) organised an international webinar titled “Negotiating Postcolonial Spaces” from July 13 to July 17, 2020.

The webinar was conceptualised in such a way as to accommodate voices both from India and abroad to provide multiple perspectives. Prof. Francis Clooney of Harvard University, USA shared his insights on the theme Learning and Living Inter-religiously: A Perspective from the West’ by stressing on the importance to be rooted in one’s religious tradition and culture, and he also advocated the need to be open to the wisdom of the other religious traditions as well.

Prof. Pashington Obeng from Ashesi University, Ghana shared his insights on ‘Siddis: The other voices in the negotiated spaces and identities in Postcoloniality.’ Prof. Obeng spoke about the concerns and the need for accepting the new reality that is the result of postcolonial encounter.

Dr.Vaishali of Bangalore University explored the relationship between the postcolonial condition and women in her exuberant and insightful lecture on‘Postcolonialism and Feminism’. Through a series of textual examples Dr.Vaishali established that postcolonial condition cannot successfully negotiate its new identity by ignoring the concerns and conditions of women. If it continues to ignore there are high chances of it merely becoming the extension of the colonial master. Prof. Sreedhara on the other hand looked at “The Postcolonial condition and the rise of Rightist Nationalism”. He critically deliberated and discussed the relationship between the ideas of nation, nationalism in the context of postcolonial situation. Dr. Etienne Rassendren and Dr.Ratan Mohunta explored the way beyond Postcolonial condition and also critiqued the postcolonial space itself. The webinar series had participants from across the world and witnessed over thousand participants.
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