Dhaka: A literature seminar, led by eminent Professor Dr Azfar Hussain, titled ‘Theory, Interdisciplinarity and the Wor(l)d’, was held on July 30, 2016, at Notre Dame University Bangladesh (NDUB) from 2:30pm to 5:00pm. 

Dr Azfar talked on: ‘Mobilizing Shakespeare's character Caliban as a figure of resistance—while also calling attention to the ways in which the Caribbean poet Aimé Césaire 're-writes' Shakespeare's Caliban as an anti-colonial revolutionary hellbent on total emancipation— the lecture theoretically explored certain connections between the word and the world, between literature and society, between theory and practice, and between knowledge and action.

The lecture thus advanced the idea of ‘activist interdisciplinarity’ in the interest of reading literature from the perspectives of human emancipation, while of course arguing that our study of literature cannot but be interdisciplinary in every instance, given that the word is in the world and that the world is in the word.’

Professor Dr. Azfar Hussain is the Vice President and Professor of English, World Literature and Interdisciplinary Studies at the Global Center for Advanced Studies (GCAS) in the USA and Europe. He is also Associate Professor of Liberal Studies/Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, the USA.

Fr. Subas Adam Pereira, CSC, Registrar of NDUB, as well as Associate Professor, Department of English, was presided over the seminar. Among other guests, Fr. Benjamin Costa, CSC, the Vice Chancellor of NDUB, was present.