Dear All, You are cordially invited to attend the following lecture organized by Karnataka State Library Association. TOPIC: Institutional Archives and the Writing of Contemporary History SPEAKER: Mrs. Indira Chowdhury PLACE: Sarada Ranganathan Endowment for Library Science (SRELS) 702, 'Upstairs', 42nd Cross, III Block Rajajinagar, Bangalore - 560 010 DATE & TIME: Saturday April 25, 2009 at 6.00 p.m. ABOUT THE LECTURE: In this presentation, Speaker shall be drawing on her recent experience in setting up the Archives of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Science in Mumbai and focus on the factors that shape the writing of contemporary history. What are the resources that contemporary history can draw on to rediscover and document the environment in which particular events took place in the not too distant past? While setting up the Archives of the Institute Homi Bhabha built, it soon became clear that examining just the annual reports and technical papers were insufficient to understand the historical circumstances that gave birth to the Institute two years before Indian independence. What resources could then be used in understanding, accessing and assessing the influence of the environment on this particular formation? What kind of institution did Homi Bhabha, whose centenary year this is, aim to create when he set up TIFR? And finally, how does a historian tap into other kinds of resources to face the challenges that any institutional archives presents? These are some of the questions that this presentation will address. ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Indira Chowdhury was formerly Professor of English at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. A PhD in History from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, her book The Frail Hero and Virile History (OUP, 1998) was awarded the Tagore Prize (Rabindra Puraskar) in 2000. Also interested in lexicography she also compiled the Supplement of Indian English words published in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary in 1995. In 2004, she published The First Promise - a translation of a major Bengali novel into English. She is based in Bangalore where she has set up Archival Resources for Contemporary History a Consultancy service for Institutions, families and communities. She is a Consultant Archivist for several institutions among them, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, IIT Kanpur, Naandi, Hyderabad and Dr Reddy's Laboratory, Hyderabad. Thanks, Anand Ananda T.Byrappa General Secretary Karnataka State Library Association -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.