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English Department

Teachers Profile

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DR. AJANTA PAUL

Principal

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SOMA RAY

Associate Professor

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KUSHAL ANDREW BISWAS

Associate Professor and HOD

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DR. DEVALINA GOPALAN

Assistant Professor

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ADHARSHILA CHATTERJEE

Assistant Professor

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About

The history of the Department of English dates back to the very foundation of Women’s Christian College in 1945. Ms Stella Bose, Founder Principal of the College, headed the Department, and with the help of Ms Allen and Mr P.D. Bose, created a strong base for the study of English language and literature in this small college.

The Honours option in the 3-year B.A. Degree Course (under the University of Calcutta) came into existence in the late 1940s. Since then, Ms Anjali Chatterjee, Ms Jyotsna Chatterjee, Ms Premi Gergen, Ms Asha Biswas, Ms.Smritituku Roy, Dr Dora A. Mondal, Ms Soma Chatterjee and Dr Sunetra Sinha were, over the years, inductees into the departmental faculty. In terms of student number and activity, the Department of English has grown into one of the largest and most vibrant of the constituent units of Women’s Christian College.

At present, it is a matter of great pride that our Principal Dr Ajanta Paul is a part of this Department, whose other faculty members are Mr Kushal A. Biswas, Dr Devalina Gopalan and Ms Adharshila Chatterjee.  Ms Soma Roy retired in December 2023. Ms Dishari Chakraborty is currently a part-time faculty member.

 

 

STUDENT ACHIEVERS

A quick check-list of some student achievers from the Department of English in recent years:

 ACHIEVEMENT

   Students

Achievements

Samantha John and Disha GomesWinning Team members of the WCC Founders’ Memorial Debate, 2019
Shrestha Gudaba and Rumiya ChakrabortyWinners of Intercollege quiz on American Jazz, Jazzonia, held at the American Center, 2020
Dishari ChakrabortyRunner-up in an online essay writing competition organised by Calcutta Girls' College, 2021 
Arunima BiswasBest Speaker Against the Motion at the Founders Memorial Debate,2022.  St Teresa Award winner, 2023.
Suparna Mal Best Young Poet at a national-level online inter-collegiate competition organised by KPR College, 2022; semi-finalist at Speak for India National Debate (state-level) 2024; St Teresa Award winner, 2024
Debjani DasFirst at district-level in Debate competition organised by Election Commission of India, 2023
Taniya BhattacharyaSecond at district-level in essay Competition organised by Election Commission of India, 2023; Third at inter-college poster competition organised by Deshbandhu College for Girls, 2022
Koyel MukherjeeChampion of Champions at WCC Annual Sports, 2024
  

 

SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE DEPARTMENT

  • The only department to have curricular interaction with every single student on campus.
  • The institution's first Principal and our current Principal are both from the Department. as is one more name on the list of institutional heads.
  • Among the largest Departments in terms of student enrolment and among the most dynamic in terms of campus presence and participation
  • Extensive use of ICT in the classroom and beyond, to enrich the teaching-learning experience
  • Prizes and incentives to motivate departmental performers, including the recently instituted Smritituku Roy Memorial Award for Excellence

 

 

DEPARTMENTAL LIBRARY AND JOURNAL

  • The Department has a small Seminar Library. It started around with fifty books donated by a staff member. With regular contributions from different members and the College Library the number has now swelled to around 200. There are also cassettes, cds and vcds.

 

Best Practices

The Department focuses on:

i. Multilingual, multidisciplinary, multimedia approach: Helping students to encounter texts in different languages, in forms other than the printed word, and offering inclusive or intermedial readings.

ii. The use of language as a powerful tool for a wide variety of purposes - communicative, critical and creative.

iii. Reducing paper wastage: Using scripts with fewer pages for class assignments and internal examinations; conducting CIE online rather than on paper.

Teaching Learning

Syllabus

SL NO SUBJECT VIEW / DOWNLOAD
1 CBCS Syllabus for UG English
2 CCF Syllabus for UG English

Capacity Building

SOME CAPACITY BUILDING AND SKILL ENHANCEMENT INITIATIVES, UNDERTAKEN BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

  1. The Department of English, in collaboration with the Soft Skills Cell of Women’s Christian College, trained our students on “Developing Public Speaking Skills”, conducted by Ms. Ratna Sen, former Senior Broadcaster of All India Radio, Kolkata, on 10th November, 2022.
  2. The Department arranged for an Internship for Departmental Students on “Working with a Publication House”, facilitated by Penprints Publication House and Press, Maniktala, from 7th June to 29th June, 2024.

Academic Activities

DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES: CURRICULAR

  • Besides teaching English in the various courses offered by the college, the Department organizes and participates in seminars and special lectures to supplement the teaching process and help to build up a rich academic and cultural environment in the college. Quizzes based on the syllabus, presentations by reputed academics in observance of special days or events related to literary giants; writing and reading academic papers: the Department has regularly been part of all these activities, intended to augment the teaching-learning process, sometimes in collaboration with other institutions.
  • The Department regularly arranges film and documentary screenings, including those related to texts being studied, to supplement textual reading/discussions and help students get a broader perspective of the way textual issues are treated in another medium. The college’s smart classrooms enable this to be done as part of the regular classes being conducted; the most recent screenings include versions of  Arms and the Man, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Macbeth and Silence! The Court is in Session. Students have also been taken to dramatic performances of texts, to broaden the horizons of their understanding and appreciation.
  • The faculty members closely monitor the overall progress in the studies of the students. The department holds meetings between teachers and parents/guardians of the students/wards, to review the strengths and weaknesses of the students/wards and suggest corrective measures to be taken for desired results. The most recent teachers-parents meeting was held in January 2024.

 

DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES: CO-CURRICULAR

  • The faculty members encourage the students to participate in sports, drama, social fests and talent search competitions, and to engage in creative writing for intra- and inter-college magazines. Our students have participated in NCC camps; won debates and creative writing competitions on campus; contributed to the college wall magazine; taken part in inter-college festivals; performed at college functions; and been part of self-defence workshops and presentations.
  • Students are also exhorted to do community work. Girls from the department have joined NSS, aided the visually challenged, participated in women-oriented programmes and workshops organized by the college’s Women’s Study Cell, and distributed clothes and medicines to victims of calamities and disasters. The diversity of exposure given to the students helps them build up a strong personality and tolerant attitude towards life. At the same time they are able to extend sympathy and help to the needy and troubled.
  • Here is a select list of activities in which the students and faculty of the Department  organised and/or participated in, during the last few years:

 

 

 

Departmental students have presented papers at students’ seminars at Basanti Devi College (2022) and New Alipore College (2023). Arunima Biswas (then in Semester 5) had a paper published in WORDS, the journal of the Department of English, Basanti Devi College, in 2022-23

 

Students from the Department have participated in elocution/poetry-reading sessions in New Alipore College (2019), Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture (2023) and at the Oxford Bookstore (2025). They have participated in poetry festivals organised by regional and national literary  such as GIEWEC and The Poetricians.

 

Prof Nilanjana Gupta, Prof Ashok Sengupta, Dr Avishek Sarkar, Dr Aparna Singh, and Prof Padmasana Chattopadhyay were among the invited resource personnel to feature in seminars, webinars and special lectures on various curricular texts and topics between 2019 and 2024.
Final-year English Honours students participated in a Value Added Course on “Transitions: from Text to Film” organised by the Department in collaboration with Boi Boibhav Foundation in 2023. Eminent litterateur-writer-critic Samik Bandopadhyay and an impressive array of resource-persons, including the department's faculty members, conducted the VAC.

 

The Department's Reading Club collaborated with Sonali Chakraborty Foundation to organise an Inter-College Quiz to observe the 250th birth anniversary of Raja Rammohun Roy.

 

 

Students from the Department took part in a dramatic performance in New Alipore College to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday in 2024, and won performance awards. Members of the Department's Drama Club staged their interpretation of Arthur Miller's work in a programme organised by the American Center in 2024.

 

Certificate Courses

Awards

MOUs

The Department established an Academic Linkage with the Department of English, Shri Shikshayatan College, Kolkata, in June 2023.

Distinguished Alumna

 

Names of Some Distinguished Alumnae

Employment Details

1.SUKANYA CHATTERJEE, GRADUATING CLASS OF 1990TEACHER TRAINER OF CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT (ICSE, CBSC) IN SCHOOLS ACROSS BANGALORE
2. KAMALIKA MITRA, GRADUATING CLASS OF 1995HUMAN RESOURCES AND ACCOUNTS PAYABLES COORDINATOR, HONEY CREEK COMMUNITY SCHOOL, MICHIGAN
3.TRIPARNA KALI, GRADUATING CLASS OF 1995ICICI BANK CHIEF MANAGER SINCE 2006
4.DR. ANUPARBA BANERJEE, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2001MEDIATOR, HIGH COURT AND DIRECTOR OF BENERJEE AND ASSOCIATES LAW FIRM
5.DR. AMRITA BASU ROY CHOWDHURY, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2005SACT, DEPARTMENT OF WOMEN’S STUDIES, LADY BRABOURNE COLLEGE
6.TAMALIKA GANGULY, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2007PUBLISHED POET IN BENGALI; ELOCUTIONIST;  CERTIFIED MAKER OF ORGANIC BEAUTY PRODUCTS
7.ANURIMA PAUL, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2014UNIVERSITY TOPPER (FIRST CLASS FIRST), 2014; SACT I, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH, SHYAMAPRASAD COLLEGE
8. JAISMITA ALEXANDER, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2018SENIOR CORRESPONDENT AT THE TELEGRAPH [ONLINE] - MY KOLKATA
9.MEDHASHREE GHOSH, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2017PUBLICATION ASSISTANT AND PROOF REASER AT ASIATIC SOCIETY,  (GOVERNMENT OF INDIA)
10.MILI MISTRI, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2019OFFICE ASSOCIATE, CORPORATE HR, ITC LTD.
11. TRIPARNA PATI, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2021ACADEMIC EXPERT  AND SUBJECT MATTER SPECIALIST AT TRUMPLIN GROUP
12.SHRUTI KUMARI, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2023CABIN CREW , INDIGO AIRLINES, [ON CAMPUS RECRUITMENT]
13. AYANTIKA BHADRA, GRADUATING CLASS OF 2024AI ASSOCIATE AT AMAZON GO
14.

RITUPARNA PAUL,

GRADUATING CLASS OF 2010

ADJUNCT FACULTY OF ENGLISH,HILBERT COLLEGE, HAMBURG, NEW YORK

 

 

The Department is proud to have an impressive array of alumnae who have gone on to carry a bit of their alma mater to different parts of the state, country and abroad. Here is a brief sampling to suggest the  width and breadth of areas that have been impacted positively by our alumnae.

 

Result

Sl No Title Result View

Student Progression

Departmental Notices

Sl No Title Notice View

Research

Research

Publications (ISBN 978-93-88332-62-0)

Project

Facilities

Activities

DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES: CURRICULAR

  • Besides teaching English in the various courses offered by the college, the Department organizes and participates in seminars and special lectures to supplement the teaching process and help to build up a rich academic and cultural environment in the college. Quizzes based on the syllabus, presentations by reputed academics in observance of special days or events related to literary giants; writing and reading academic papers: the Department has regularly been part of all these activities, intended to augment the teaching-learning process, sometimes in collaboration with other institutions.
  • The Department regularly arranges film and documentary screenings, including those related to texts being studied, to supplement textual reading/discussions and help students get a broader perspective of the way textual issues are treated in another medium. The college’s smart classrooms enable this to be done as part of the regular classes being conducted; the most recent screenings include versions of Arms and the Man, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Macbeth and Silence! The Court is in Session. Students have also been taken to dramatic performances of texts, to broaden the horizons of students’ understanding and appreciation.
  • The faculty members closely monitor the overall progress in the studies of the students. The department holds meetings between teachers and parents/guardians of the students/wards, to review the strengths and weaknesses of the students/wards and suggest corrective measures to be taken for desired results. The most recent teachers-parents meeting was held in January 2024

 

DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES: CO-CURRICULAR

  • The faculty members encourage the students to participate in sports, drama, social fests and talent search competitions, and to engage in creative writing for intra- and inter-college magazines. Our students have participated in NCC camps; won debates and creative writing competitions on campus; contributed to the college wall magazine; taken part in inter-college festivals; performed at college functions; and been part of self-defence workshops and presentations.
  • Students are also exhorted to do community work. Girls from the department have joined NSS, aided the visually challenged, participated in women-oriented programmes and workshops organized by the college’s Women’s Study Cell, and distributed clothes and medicines to victims of calamities and disasters. The diversity of exposure given to the students helps them build up a strong personality and tolerant attitude towards life. At the same time they are able to extend sympathy and help to the needy and troubled.
     

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