The Department of English and Centre for Research at Post Graduate Government College for Girls, Sector-11, Chandigarh recently hosted a National Seminar titled “Contemporary Aesthetics and Technology” on February 22nd, 2023. The seminar was sponsored by College Development Council, PU, Chandigarh and featured an esteemed group of speakers and scholars. The Principal, Prof Anita Kaushal, gave the opening remarks and praised the organizers for choosing such a relevant topic. Prof Maninder Sidhu, Head of the Department, introduced the seminar’s theme and Prof Arjun Ghosh from IIT Delhi delivered the keynote address on “Multilingual Scholarship in the Digital Age: Opportunities and Challenges in South Asia”.
The plenary session included a panel discussion moderated by Prof Sidhu, featuring creative thinkers and scholars such as Prof BN Goswamy, Prof Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry, Ms Neel Kamal Puri, and Mr Khushwant Singh. They discussed the impact of technology on visual arts, theatre, fiction, and aesthetic imagination. The seminar was well-attended by students and research scholars from various universities and colleges from the region and other parts of the country.
Faculty and scholars presented research papers on various ethical conundrums arising from the interface between art and technology in the technical sessions organized around new media, literary studies, digitization, films, iconography, and other aesthetic forms. These sessions were chaired by Prof Deepti Gupta, Dr Meenu Gupta, and Prof Praveen Sharda.
The seminar ended with a valedictory address by Prof Akshaya Kumar, Chairman of the Department of English and Cultural Studies, PU, Chandigarh, who highlighted aspects of emerging electronic literature. This was followed by an interactive session and a vote of thanks from Dr Tanuja Pathak. Overall, the seminar was a resounding success, offering a thought-provoking platform to explore the complex relationship between technology and aesthetics in contemporary times.
