Exeter South Asia Centre

By Shreya Gupta and Shibani Das, PhD Candidates in History

Thousands of students walk through the Forum every day, rushing to class, the library or stumbling out of the RAM bar. One witnesses a pause in this bustle at the queue winding its way to grab a coffee at PRET.

Between the 9th to the 11th of November, students at the University of Exeter found another reason to pause in the Forum: An exhibition recounting stories of famine through poetry, scroll paintings and graphic art, titled Durbhikkha Katha (‘Famine Tales from India and Britain’), part of an AHRC-funded project organised by the University of Exeter in collaboration with Jadavpur University and the British Library.

On the 1st of December, we had a lovely online workshop organised by two of our PhD candidates – Yangkyi Tenzin (English) and Prashant (History), together with the joint Director of the Centre, Dr Elizabeth Thelen. The idea was to have discussions around research projects that are ongoing or in the making, being undertaken by both students and staff, allowing for a dialogic, democratic format. We had three presentations by PhD candidates, and three by staff members of the Centre. Each presentation was between 5-10 minutes in length, and was followed by lively discussion with all members of the audience, ably chaired by Prashant in the first half, and Yangkyi in the second.