About the Department
Department of English and Modern European Languages is one of the six founding Departments of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur. Its glorious journey has been marked by an incessant and insatiable strive for excellence, and it's pedagogical vision is heavily predicated on student-centric and research-oriented approach to learning. No wonder, that it has emerged over decades as the dream destination for students of Eastern Uttar Pradesh.
Under the leadership of Prof. S. P. Mishra as the Head, the Department embarked on its voyage with Dr. R. N. Verma, Mr. Thakur Guru Prasad Srivastava and Dr. R. S. Verma as the faculty members. The Department attracted great attention during its infancy when three faculty members, namely Dr R. S. Verma, Prof. Pratap Singh and Prof. Krishna Gopal Srivastava were selected by the British Council to study abroad. Presently, under the able Headship of Prof. Ajay Kumar Shukla and his team of faculty members as Prof. Nandita Singh, Prof. Huma Javed Subzposh, , Prof. Alok Kumar, Prof. Sunita Murmu, Prof. G. H. Behera, Prof. Shikha Singh, Prof. Awanish Rai, Dr Pankaj Kumar Singh , Dr Sanjeev Vishwakarma ,Dr. Brijesh Kumar and Dr. Shayequa Tanzeel, the department is committed to initiate new avenues that may come up with the implementation of the objectives of National Education Policy 2020.
The Department has been one of the most dynamic and progressive departments of the University since its foundation. It has produced an impressive number of academicians, administrators, diplomats, and politicians. The Department has always been enriched with distinguished faculty members, who specialise in diverse areas of English and Literary Studies such as Literary Theory, Postcolonial literature, Indian English Literature, Linguistics, Feminism, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Ecocriticism, and so on. It promotes rigorous research in relevant and emerging areas and topics.
The Department has so far organised more than a dozen National/International Conferences /Seminars/Workshops on pertinent issues/topics related to literature and language. We have actively engaged in skill development through Refresher Courses in collaboration with the UGC-HRDC of the University. In the session 2020-2021 , 14-Day online Refresher Course in Languages on the topic “ Higher Education: Recent Trends and Innovation in Teaching of Language and Literature” was organised. In the session 2022-23, we organized a Refresher Course on the topic “Interacting Interdisciplinarity: Recent Trends in Indian Languages and Literature”. More than fifty students are registered as PhD scholars who are encouraged to engage extensively in research activities. The Department promotes paper presentations by its PhD scholars to encourage critical discussion among students and faculty members. We aim to create and provide an academically vibrant ambience to our students. Classroom lectures are well supplemented with various co-curricular activities such as film screenings and workshops. Under the aegis of the Literary Club of the Department, named “Discourse” , competitions in Creative Writing, Debate, Essay Writing, Literary Quiz, Extempore, Group Discussion, Elocution and Recitations are organised. The Department has its social media platforms including a YouTube Channel. The students of the department have been appointed in different sectors pan India i.e. professors in the university departments, professors in colleges through Higher Education Commissions and Public Service Commissions of different states. The recent initiatives that the department has taken under the able leadership of the present Head Prof. Ajay Kumar Shukla, i.e. conducting mock interviews, constituting research forum, using social media and electronic media platforms to advertise the activities and initiatives of the department, help students to compete and crack selection processes.
The Department has successfully fashioned its curricula and teaching methodology in accordance with the contemporary standards in Higher Education. Both Undergraduate and Postgraduate Courses are in conformity with the New Education Policy 2020. Elective Courses on Popular Literature in English, Literature and Environment, Women’s Writing in English, Literature of the Indian Diaspora, Literature of Precarity and Marginality, South Asian Literatures, Modern Indian Literature in English Translation, Gender Studies, Cultural and Film Studies, Post- 1980 Indian English Literature are also being offered. Opening up of the Language Laboratory and equipping classrooms with smart technology have proved to be highly beneficial to the students. We are restarting Certificate Courses in Russian, French, German, Spanish and Communicative English and determined to initiate new programmes in Cultural Studies, Translation Studies, Film Studies and Theatre Studies. The Department, thus, eagerly strives to explore, as Milton says, ‘fresh woods, and pastures new’.
