GUWAHATI, Aug 2 - An international webinar series titled �Gendered Sites, Everyday Lives� hosted by the Centre for Women�s Studies (CWS), Cotton University, in association with its Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), concluded on July 31.
Inaugurating the series, Vice Chancellor of Cotton University Prof Bhabesh Ch Goswami stressed the importance of reviewing gender issues in the time of the pandemic, saying that this was, in fact, a historic moment that gives us an opportunity to do a critical analysis on these traits.
The programme was chaired by Dr Rakhee Kalita Moral, Head, CWS and Associate Professor, Department of English of the University, who convened and coordinated the webinar series. She explained the exercise as an attempt to rethink the social structures that spawn and reinforce differences among the genders in a time of crisis.
Renowned academicians across the country and abroad participated as resource persons in the webinar, which witnessed lively interactions.
The inaugural lecture was delivered by Prof Maitrayee Chaudhuri, Centre for Study of Social Systems and former Director of Women�s studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, on �Gender and Society: A COVID 19 perspective�. Prof Rekha Pande, former Head, Centre for Women�s Studies, and Professor of History, University of Hyderabad, delivered the second lecture of the series on �Digital Divide, Gender and COVID 19�. The third lecture of the series was delivered by Prof Rukimini Sen, Professor of Sociology, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi, on �Home, Lockdown, and Negotiations: Expressions and Silences�. The final lecture was delivered by Prof Geraldine Forbes, Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita, State University of New York, Oswego, USA. She spoke on �Researching Women�s Lives: History and Photography in Colonial India (with a pandemic postscript)� before an august audience of academics, researchers and students from across the globe.
Prof Diganta Das, Registrar, Cotton University, in his valedictory address congratulated the CWS for successfully conducting the virtual event, which saw a huge number of participants. He reflected upon the importance of holding such webinars and thanked the speakers, participants and organizers for making the entire programme a success.
Dr Birendra Pal, secretary, Assam College Library Association (ACLA), provided the technical support during the programme. The moderators of the question and answer sessions were Dr Sangeeta Barthakur, Dr Indrani Sharma, Dr Pooja Chetry, Dr Kalpana Bora and Dr Payal Jain, all faculty members of Cotton University.
The webinar series, which received an overwhelming response, was beamed via the �Zoom� app and was simultaneously broadcast live on Facebook. The series ended with a vote of thanks by Dr Santanu Sarma, joint coordinator of the webinar.
