Introduction

The Department of English at Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur was established in the year 1959 and included luminaries, such as Nagarmal Sehal, Isaac Sequiera and V.V. John as its founder faculty. Over the succeeding years, notable faculty members including K.L. Sharma, Tirthankar Bose, Niaz Ahmed, S.B. Mathur, V.C. Srivastava, J.G. Massey, R.N. Mukherjee, Chirantan Kulshreshtha, S. N. Joshi, G.M. Mehta, P. C. Maloo and Abdul Basit added to the rich academic-driven culture of the department. Sharad Srivastava, Nafisa Hatimi, Ashutosh Mohan, Seema Malik and Minakshi Jain also added to the literary growth of the Department. Pradeep Trikha and Khushpal Garg made the department intellectually richer. Six new members were appointed in 2018, adding to the scholarly strength of the department.

Current Faculty of the Department

Courses Offered

The Department offers B.A. (Pass Course), B.A.(Hons), M.A. (CBCS Sem. Scheme) and PhD Programmes. It has also been running a highly sought-after one-year Certificate Course in English, since 1987. We have adopted NEP structure and courses in UG & PG Programmes. Certificate Courses in French and German languages are running successfully since 2020. 

Infrastructure

With Language Lab equipped with multimedia audio­visual system and computers, a well-equipped and air-conditioned Smart Classroom, as well as a well-stocked Departmental Library which carries a selection of relevant books on literature and language, the focus of the department is on Students as well as Researchers so as to cater to the contemporary needs of its students.

Former Heads of the Department 

Academic Activities of the Department

Apart from regular teaching work, the Department’s faculty members are actively engaged in curricula designing and academic writing, as well as in conducting and supervising doctoral research. Members of the faculty regularly participate in seminars, symposia, workshops, etc., and contribute to various literary magazines and research journals of national and international repute. As research supervisors, most of the members are also guiding research scholars pursuing their PhD from the department.

Extra-curricular Activities of the Department

The Department also organizes several curricular and extracurricular activities for the students, including International and National Seminars and Conferences, Writers' Festivals, Quiz Contests, Declamation Contests and Group Discussions. In addition, it has been organizing the annual Inter-varsity National level Niaz Ahmed Memorial Debate since 1979. An eye-view of the activities organized during the last few years will give an idea of the department's broad spectrum of scholarly activities.

• National Seminar on “Ethics and Aesthetics in Indian Literary Practices” in September 2008
• International Conference on “Performing the Postcolonial” organized by the Indian Association for Common Wealth Literature and Language Studies (IACLALS) and Department of English, M.L.S. University, Udaipur in January 2008.
• “Celebrating Hundred Years of Tagore's Gitanjali” in November 2013
• National Seminar on"RethinkingMahabharata: Contemporary Contexts and Texts" in March 2015
• International Writers' Festival in collaboration with Kafla Foundation in October 2016
• Faculty Development Programme on 'Postcolonial, Transnational and World Literatures: Contexts and Approaches' under the aegis of MHRD'S Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) Course in January 2017
• “City Mandarins Writing the City”, the City Stories Utsav in October 2017
• International Conference on “Planetary Futures and the Global South”, in January 2018
• National Conference on “Borders and Spaces: Re-Calibrating Indian Diaspora in the 21st Century”, in collaboration with ICSSR, New Delhi in December 2019
• Two-Day Webinar on ‘Pandemic Literature’  was organized on 24 and 25 July, 2021 to reflect on the need and scope of a new genre of Pandemic Literature that has the ability to configure and reconfigure social, cultural, philosophical, political and literary concepts
• To commemorate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Extension Lectures on 2 & 4 August 2022 were organized under the joint auspices of Department of English and Centre for English & Foreign Languages (Career Hub Project under RUSA 2) on ‘Exploring Literary Aesthetics: A Reading’ and on ‘Popular Culture, Literature, and Our Lived Experience’. 
• Faculty Development Programme on “Literature and Film in the 21st Century” was organized from 10-16 October, 2022. 
• National Seminar on “Literary Musings and Quantum Thought in Contemporary Times” was organized under the joint auspices of Department of English, GGSIPU New Delhi, and Studio Mumuksh, Udaipur was held on 11-12 November, 2022. 
• Value Added Course in Research Methodology was conducted between 14 and 20 November, 2022 and included interactive lectures on Theory and Methodology, including Postcolonial Theory, Feminist and Diaspora Theory, Drama Studies, Literary Research, Structure of the Dissertation, Documentation, Library Resources, Plagiarism and Research Ethics.
• Extension Lectures on “How Music Disarmed Dialectics: Melville, Emerson and Contemporary Composers” by Pawel Jedrzejko, President, International American Studies Association and on “Drawing Life: American women Artists/Writers” by S. Bilge Mutulay Centintas from Hacettepe University, Turkey were held on 26 November, 2022

Center for Communication Skills in English and Foreign Languages- CCSEFL

The Department also runs the highly successful Center for Communication Skills in English and Foreign Languages, CCSEFL, under RUSA 2.0 (MHRD Scheme). Certificate Courses in English and Foreign Languages, such as German and French, are currently being taught in the Centre. Three batches of approx. 90 students hav successfully completed the certificates in French and German. The fourth batches are ongoing. One student of the first batch is teaching French in a school and some of the students are doing higher level courses from elsewhere. Higher level courses will be offered at the centre also, in the second phase.

Achievements by Faculty Members

Erstwhile member of the department, Prof. Seema Malik, has been granted a Research & Innovation Project “Folklore of Vagad Region: Mapping Oral Traditions” under RUSA2.0 She also rendered her services in various administrative and academic positions in the University, such as Member of, Board of Management; Dean, Post-Graduate Studies; Chairperson, Faculty of Humanities; Director, University Language Lab; Head, Department of English and Dean, University College of Social Sciences and Humanities. She has also completed two UGC Minor Research Projects and has authored two books and edited one. She has been a Fulbright Fellowship for Administrators in Higher Education awardee. Prof. Malik was invited to Singapore for the Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) of MHRD, New Delhi, Government of India. She has delivered several invited talks as UGC Visiting Professor to various universities in India, as well as in Cordoba, Spain; Melbourne, Australia; Chicago, USA; Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Recently superannuated, the senior Professor of the department, Pradeep Trikha was awarded the very prestigious visiting Professorship in the Department of British Studies, University of Muenster, Germany, Nov. 2022- Feb. 2023. He has translated Madhav Hada’s much-acclaimed book on Meera, Pachrang Chola Pahan Sakhi Ri (2016) entitled, Meera vs Meera (2020). He has written and edited ten books and has delivered several Invited Lectures at the Universities of Melbourne, NSW, Wollongong, Canberra, Queensland, ANU and ACU in Australia. In the USA, he was invited by the University of Washington, New York University and Harvard University to deliver lectures. He holds a rich academic portfolio, including serving as a Member of the Board of Management and Head of the Department of English. Prof. Trikha also rendered his services as Associate Dean, University College of Social Sciences and Humanities; Director, IQAC; Director, University Language Lab.; Chairman, Faculty of Humanities; Coordinator, Competitive Examination Coaching Centre; and Advisor, International Students, MLSU, till he superannuated in July 2023.

Foreign Dignitaries Visiting the Department

Distinguished Visitors to the Department

Pramod K. Nayar, GJV Prasad, Nilufer Bharucha, P C Kar, Tutun Mukherjee, G Tirupat Kumar, Sridhar, Jaywanti Dimri, Kapil Kapoor, Makarand Paranjape, Harish Trivedi, E V Ramakrishnan, K M Pandey, Anita Singh, Sushila Kaushik, Sudha Rai, Jasbir Jain, Rajul Bhargava, Sudhi Rajiv, Akshay Kumar, Anoop Beniwal, Harish Narang, A K Singh, Inez Baraney- Australian writer, Dhananjay Singh-ICSSR, Angshuman Kar- West Bengal, Rana Nayar- Shimla, Tanuja Mathur- RU Jaipur, Bill Ashkroft- UNSW- Australia, Nicholas Birns-NYU-New York, Sukrita Paul Kumar- Sahitya Akademi, Pawel Jedrzejko- Poland, S. Bilge- Turkey, Rutuja Deshmukh- Pune, Manisha Gangahar- Chandigarh, Hamsavahini Singh - Banasthali.

Student Alumni of the Department

The illustrious student alumni of the Department include Chirantan Kulshreshtha- Fulbright Scholar; C P Vyas- IAS; B N Yogeshwar- IPS; G H Lunaich- IPS. Several of the alumni of the Department are rendering their services as faculty in universities, colleges and schools across the nation: Manisha Shekhawat, Dinesh Rawat, Savita Verdia, Aparna Sharma, Aarti Jain, Harshvardhan Singh Chundawat, Megha Chaudhary, Deepti Tiwari, Chandraprakash Meghwal, Shankarlal Dholi, Khemraj Gadari, Devanshu Chauhan (French Teacher).

Literary Forum

The Department has established a Literary Forum as a dedicated platform for students to showcase their literary skills and performance. The Induction Programme for new students of the session was organized under the aegis of the Forum. It is headed by a Convener, a faculty member of the department who holds the post for an academic session. The organizing body of the Literary Forum comprises selected students from postgraduate and undergraduate programmes run by the department. The Forum brought out two volumes of Newsletter during the academic session 2022-23. The Student Induction Programme for the 2023-2024 batch students was organized on 23 September 2023.