An informative lecture on the growing importance of interdisciplinarity in the field of English Studies was conducted by DLHS, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Bangalore. Undergraduate and postgraduate students of English

Language and Literature attended this interactive lecture. Megna Ashok Kumar, one of the MA students, introduced Dr. Cheriyan Alexander and welcomed the gathering. Dr. Alexander’s 30+ years of experience in the teaching field translated into a highly enlightening and captivating session that had the students and faculty engaged throughout. He started his lecture with an overview of the literary periods in English literature. He contrasted the Age of Enlightenment and the Romantic Period. Dr. Alexander kept the session interactive by using audio-visual aids. Students actively responded to the questions he presented while differentiating the literary periods. Moreover, he also focussed on the shift in the styles of painting and music over the years.

The presentation slides consisted of quotes from writers from varying periods. Additionally, there were multiple images of paintings by artists such as Constable, Goya and Turner. We were left wondering whether Wordsworth and Constable knew each other. Dr. Alexander also played short clips of artists such as Bach and Beethoven for the students to clearly understand the literary periods as they shifted. Dr. Alexander touched upon the importance of music in politics and briefly talked about the use of music to urge men to go to war. This shifted the focus to the idea of nationalism in alignment with Romanticism.

Following this lecture, a more interactive session was conducted where he listed a few seemingly unrelated words, such as feudalism, sociology, psychology, etc. and asked the participants to describe their thoughts when they heard these words. Then, he related this exercise to the importance of interdisciplinarity, especially when we take up any text for study.

The lecture concluded with a vote of thanks by Ritzel Rebello, another student of MA English Language and Literature.

The students gained a holistic impression of different literary periods and the importance of taking up a more interdisciplinary approach to English Studies in the current era. Dr. Alexander’s enthusiastic lecture left each and every student eager to research more to enable a broader understanding of various fields that collide with the discipline of English. As students of English, the lecture was an eye-opener and sparked the students’ interest and curiosity.