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CoVID-19 Pandemic as a Factor Revolutionizing the Industry of Higher Education

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272 views

Yuriy Borysovych Melnyk1, Iryna Sergiivna Pypenko2, Yuri Vsevolodovich Maslov3

1 PhD, Professor, National Academy of the National Guard of Ukraine, Ukraine; y.b.melnyk@gmail.com; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8527-4638

2 PhD, Associate Professor, Simon Kuznets Kharkiv National University of Economics, Ukraine; iryna.pypenko@hneu.net; https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5083-540X

3 PhD, Associate Professor, Belarusian State Economic University, Belarus; maslove@tut.by; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5715-6546

   Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s19n2

 Abstract

Due to the CoVID-19 pandemic, the world has changed dramatically, and it will never be the same. Under the circumstances, a new type of specialist is in demand that possesses competency in information technologies and communication means, as well as in health culture. The problem of corporate health culture is becoming a serious issue in scientific discourse. The present paper deals with the results of the study aimed at the assessment of the higher education systems’ preparedness for an emergency such as the CoVID-19 pandemic that affects the health of the participants in the educational process. The results were obtained through expert evaluations. The paper contains the analysis of the anonymous questionnaire answers obtained from the participants of the International Academic Conference “Psychological and Pedagogical Problems of Modern Specialist Formation” held online in June 2020 (Zoom Video Communications platform). The conference hosted over 200 researchers and practitioners in the field of education, psychology, and medicine representing 78 institutions from 20 countries located on five continents. The conference framework included a roundtable discussion accompanied by a questionnaire related to the organizational problems university education faced during the CoVID-19 pandemic. The analysis of the answers and expert opinions was conducted using the Pearson method ?2, which produced statistically relevant results. The analysis revealed marked differences in the attitudes of faculty (including gender differences) to the pandemic in terms of the organization of teaching at universities, the effect of social distancing measures on health (both physical and mental), and the value systems.

Keywords: University, Education, Culture, Health, CoVID-19

Incorporation of “Human Values” in all Higher Education Curricula (Technical & Non-Technical) – An inevitable action to eradicate discriminations

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171 views

G. S. Suresh1 & C. GangaLakshmi2

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu. E-mail: suresh7english@gmail.com ORCID id: 0000-0002-5744-3633

Senior Assistant Professor, Department of English, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamilnadu. E-mail: gangalakshmi.c@gmail.com, ORCID id: 0000-0003-0268-6555

   Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s19n1

Abstract

This paper argues that the current education system needs a rational and radical change from the objective of materialistic education to humanistic education. Hence, incorporation of human values education (AICTE, 2017) in the modern education system particularly in higher education including both technical and non-technical streams becomes the fulcrum point of this paper. A critical analysis on the Gen Z learners’ aversive mindset towards the current learning routines and education system is presented for discussion. As a remedial approach, a bunch of refreshing rough and ready but pragmatic learning strategies are advocated to nurture them both with human values and employability skills. Even in the scientific/digital era, it is noted with big concern that this civilized nation irrationally exercises discrimination and disparity across the globe. As a remedial action, the teaching fraternity should impart human values education without any compromises because the creation of a better world is only in the hands of rational teachers and compassionate Gen Z students. Finally, this paper places the following question for the perusal of the whole academia, “Which is essential to prepare the Gen Z to stand against all types of discrimination and live a harmonious life: a balanced curriculum inclusive of human values/moral values and competitive skills or a restricted curriculum imparting only technical knowledge and competitive skills excluding human values/moral values?”.

Keywords: human values education, Gen Z learners’ mindset, pros and cons of exams and grades, human values, discrimination and disparity, rational teachers, compassionate learners.

Donyi-Polo and Deep Ecology: A Select Reading of Mamang Dai’s Midsummer Survival Lyrics

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305 views

Sukla Singha

Research Scholar, Department of English, Tripura University, Tripura, India, ORCID ID:  0000-0003-4948-7297, Email:  shukla.singha85@gmail.com

   Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s18n2

Abstract

The Adis of Arunachal Pradesh consider everything coming from nature as sacred and living. As opposed to the Christian theological teachings that regard humans as the conqueror of everything else on earth, in the Adi worldview, human beings do not occupy the center stage. Instead, the Adis believe in the intrinsic worth of all beings – both human and nonhuman, which exist on earth, as reflected in the Adi philosophy of ‘Donyi-Polo.’This paper attempts to study select poems from Mamang Dai’s book of poems Midsummer Survival Lyrics (2014) in the light of the philosophy of Donyi Polo. It also attempts to link this Adi worldview to the ecosophy of Arne Naess popularly known as ‘Deep Ecology.’

Keywords: Donyi-Polo, Deep Ecology, Ecosophy, Human, Nonhuman

Authenticity v/s Glocalization as Represented in the Digital Platforms: A Study on the Food Culture with Special Reference to Tripura

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278 views

Gitanjali Roy

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts, ICFAI University, Tripura. E-mail: gitanjaliroy@iutriipura.edu.in

  Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s17n7

Abstract

Food habit articulates the local culture of a region. Tripura, a land-locked state of varied communities (the tribes and Bengalis of the soil) negotiates the countercultural exchange of cuisines. Traditional ethnic foods are markers of shared cultural values and identity. Preparation of traditional food involves the role of memory which involves passing down culinary skills, techniques, and ingredients from one generation to the next. The marketing industry and the restaurant culture have changed the taste of the consumers but again the ‘losses’ and the ‘need’ to preserve the traditional cuisines are archived in digital platforms. With the rise in YouTube food channels, Facebook pages, food delivery companies like Swiggy and Zomato; the local food met with the global consumer culture. On one hand, lost ethnic food habits are preserved by documenting the procedures of cooking traditional dishes. On the other, restaurants and bloggers are experimenting to prepare local food using global spices and techniques, resulting in a hybridized food identified by their hybridized name. This paper shall focus on how a new taste for food has developed in Tripura with the rise in digital participatory culture. The focus shall also be on the marketing signs and signifiers used in digital platforms to attract digital food readership. As e-readers, a survey of digital menu cards shall try to identify how the local food has evolved as glocalized cuisines.

Keywords: Local, Global, Glocal, Hybrid, Food, Tripura, Bengalis, Tribes, Cuisine, Authentic, Digital, Culture.

“There is No Home, Pig”: Examining the Dilemma of Northeast Queer in Time of Covid-19

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282 views

Lede E Miki Pohshna

Research Scholar, English Department, North-Eastern Hill University, Email- ledeemiki@gmail.com, ORCID- https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0434-9704

  Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s17n6

Abstract

While COVID-19 has unleashed waves of reverse-migration from the cities back to the hometowns due to economic and physical uncertainties that accompanied the pandemic, queer people from the North-Eastern Region of India choose to stay in the cities. Defying the reverse-migration trend, they choose the freedom that the city gives them over the prejudice of their hometown toward their sexuality. This paper will theorize how pandemic affects and at the same time affirms queer sexualities This paper will re-interpret metronormativity in the context of North-East queer people and will co-opt Judith Halberstam’s theory while at the same time reworking it to fit the local context of queer North-East. Unlike Halberstam’s theory that the metro offers a continuum of free existence to the queer people,  this paper will examine certain queer narratives both online and through  interviews in order to understand how the city offers not a “freer” existence ( in the sense that  freedom is given and implied upon) but rather a relatively anonymous existence which allows them to live freely in anonymity but never silent. It will problematize the concept of home and space and how queer subjectivities are (un)formed depending upon certain variables that the home offers which eventually affects queer existence. This existence will then juxtapose with Kosofsky’s “gesture of silence” of the home and the closet and in doing so, it will attempt to understand North East queer’s preference for the danger of COVID 19 and the “insecurities” of the city over the “security” of home.

 Keywords: Northeastern, Queer, Metronormativity, Reverse-Migration, COVID-19

Retracing Deep Ecology in the reorientation of Naga identity with special reference to the select works of Easterine Kire Iralu

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380 views

Subhra Roy

Research Scholar, Department of English, Tripura University.  E-mail: suvizimu@gmail.com

  Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s17n5

Abstract

The Naga myth of origin underscores the co-existence of and the interconnectivity between the human and the natural world. It is believed that the Nagas once lived in Makhel and a tree stands there as the witness and symbol of Naga origin and unity. The Angami Nagas used to believe that before their dispersal to different parts of the world, three monoliths were erected at Makhrai-Rabu, and these structures represent the Tiger, the Man and the Spirit which stand for the flora and fauna, the human society and the spirit world. With the fall of the first monolith the destruction of the world is initiated and with the fall of the last one the earth witnesses complete doom. It has been reported that only one of these monoliths is standing erect, and it would not be too naive to say that it reminds us of the impending doom that perhaps has already been previewed in the form of natural disasters and other life threatening diseases. In the Naga cultural milieu, nature existed as an independent entity that breathed life into Naga myths, folklores and way of life. In short, it used to define the identity of the primordial Nagas, until their animist world view was replaced by that of Christianity. It was followed by the Indo-Naga conflict, and the Nagas were soon left with confused identities and crises that ran deep into their psyche. Easterine Kire Iralu, the author from Nagaland, tries to reorient the Naga identity by reclaiming the age-old myths and rituals.She tries to retrace the inherent Naga faith in deep ecology that gives equal importance to the distinct parts of the ecosystem that function as a whole.

 Keywords: co-existence, monoliths, ecosystem, Christianity, identity, deep ecology

Examining the Emergence of Feminist Consciousness in the Select Fiction of Contemporary North East Women Writers

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290 views

Adenuo Shirat Luikham

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Don Bosco College Kohima, Nagaland, India. Email: adenuo@gmail.com. ORCID: 0000-0003-4273-3117.

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s17n4

Abstract

An interesting development in the literary world in India in the last few decades is the emergence of writings in English from the North East. This development is simultaneously accompanied with a growing interest in the region’s writings and its people especially from mainland India. It is also noteworthy that many of the contemporary writers contributing to this nascent literary tradition are women. While the quality of any writing cannot be overshadowed or judged by gender, it is irrefutable that women write from a position where their gender often dictates their experiences. For contemporary women writers of the North East, their narratives, seated in the vehicle of fiction, become a revelation on the gendered experiences of women from the region whose issues, concerns and problems are often shrouded in a cloud of mystery and exoticized by the outside world. The paper seeks to examine the select fiction of women writers from the region and state that there is a discernible feminist consciousness that is emerging; identifying these feminist markers in their fiction allows the silenced voices of women to be heard and their growing boldness to claim a dignified existence in the midst of convoluted geo-politics that have irrevocably scarred the region.

 Keywords: North East, Feminist Consciousness, Contemporary Women Writers, Fiction from the North East

Identity, Indigeneity and Excluded Region: In the Quest for an Intellectual History of Modern Assam

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270 views

Suranjana Barua1 & L. David Lal2

1Assistant Professor in Linguistics, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Information Technology Guwahati, Assam, India. Email: suranjana.barua@gmail.com

2Assistant Professor in Political Science, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Information Technology Guwahati, Assam, India. Email: davidkani21@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s17n3

Abstract

If Indian intellectual history focussed on the nature of the colonial and post-colonial state, its interaction with everyday politics, its emerging society and operation of its economy, then how much did/ does North-East appear in this process of doing intellectual history? North-East history in general and its intellectual history in particular is an unpeopled place. In Indian social science literature, North-East history for the last seventy years has mostly revolved around separatist movements, insurgencies, borderland issue and trans-national migration. However, it seldom focussed on the intellectuals who have articulated the voice of this place and constructed an intellectual history of this region. This paper attempts to explore the intellectual history of Assam through understanding the life history of three key socio-political figures – Gopinath Bordoloi, Bishnu Prasad Rabha and Chandraprabha Saikiani. Their engagement at the turn of the twentieth century with ideas for the future North-East region in general and Assam in partcular is parallel to the formation of the Indian nation state. Research on the writings and works of these socio-political figures is analysed to address what North-east history can contribute to the intellectual history of India and how essential is it in the field of indigenous studies?

Keywords: Intellectual History; Indigenous Studies; North-East India; Assam; Gopinath Bordoloi, Bishnu Prasad Rabha, Chandraprabha Saikiani

Language Recognition and Identity Formation in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills

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242 views

Mereleen Lily Lyngdoh Y. Blah

Assistant Professor, Dyal Singh College, University of Delhi, E-mail: mblahs@gmail.com

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s17n2

Abstract

The official use of any language by the administration and employment of the said language by the state whether through educational institutions and administrators as a standard literary dialect, gives it recognition. The Education policy adopted by the British and the choice of English being made the language of instruction throughout the country is made evident in Macaulay’s Minute of 1835 and is reiterated again more than a decade later in the Minute of 1847. From the very beginning English was associated with the administration and the benefits that it would bring but they failed to take into account the people who were unfamiliar with it. The categorization and later association of languages with religion, caste, community, tribe and class is evident in the various census undertakings as the official recognition became a determination of its status. In the Census of 1891, the Khasis and Jaintias are relegated as “two groups statistically insignificant”, considering the population and the number of people who spoke the languages associated with the communities. The use of the Roman script had by this time been, “thoroughly established” by the missionaries. The first few census data and later writings by indigenous writers helped cement the association of language with the community. The use of the vernacular in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya, by the earliest missionaries, initially arose more out of necessity and convenience rather than by official decree. The choice and standardization of dialect and script in print however, helped solidify a Khasi identity. This paper seeks to look at the link between recognition of the standard language used in print and identity formation in the Khasi and Jaintia Hills and the relevance of language as a marker of identity today.

Keywords: Standardization, Print language, Language and Identity Formation, Khasi Identity.

Negotiating Representation: The Self and Community in The Story of a Tribal: An Autobiography

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212 views

Badakynti Nylla Iangngap

PhD Research Scholar, Department of English, North-Eastern Hill University, E-mail: bnylla.iangngap23@gmail.com. ORCID: 0000-0001-8220-3431

 Volume 12, Number 5, 2020 I Full Text PDF

DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n5.rioc1s17n1

Abstract

Literature as a means of representation and understanding selfhood and identity was oral based for the Khasis prior to colonialism but the coming of education via the proselytising efforts of the Welsh Mission led to the development of Khasi literature by the end of the 19th century. As mode of representation, literature for Khasis became a space of negotiation and of adaptation of foreign modes of expression and representation to reclaim an identity which has been suppressed by the colonial rulers via their discursive practices. This is clearly seen in the trend of the literary production of the community.  The 20th century saw a mushrooming of literary production by Khasi writers, with most of them preferring to write in their own language and about their oral tradition. Interestingly, despite this trend, the first autobiography by a Khasi, B. M. Pugh’s The Story of a Tribal (1976), was written in English. The title of the text itself alerts the readers of the highly politicised term ‘tribal’ as Pugh himself points out in his Preface and along with the fact that it is an autobiography the implication of issues of representation in terms of identity and selfhood cannot be missed. The text is also historically significant because of the author’s articulation of his understanding of identity making in the midst of the cultural and political forces of colonialism and later Indian nationalism especially because it provides a glimpse of the hill state movement that surged in the Northeast immediately after Independence. This text thus gives an eye-witness account of the struggle that the hill tribes of Northeast faced to maintain their political and cultural identity.

Keywords: postcolonialism, literature, representation, self, identity, literature, autobiography

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