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R O F I L E
Department of English
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi – 110025
The Department has been offering instruction for the award of the degrees of B. A. Honours (since 1975), M. A. (since 1983), M. Phil. (since 1993) and Ph. D (since 1988). It became a part of the Faculty of Humanities and Languages in 1985. In 1988, the department started teaching Certificate, Diploma, and Advanced Diploma courses in Russian and French. The teaching of Certificate in Italian started in 2001. From 2007, these languages are being taught at the Centre for European and Latin American Studies.
One of the major responsibilities of the department is the “General English” course. Undergraduate courses in all subjects, whether science, commerce or arts, include two compulsory English papers, one in the first year and the next in the second year of the degree programme. The department also offers special “bridge” courses and Communicative English Programmes from time to time.
At present, it is one of the largest departments in the University, with about 70 students enrolled for research degrees like M.Phil. and Ph.D. Students come from all parts of
The main strength of the department is the multilingual competence of the members of the faculty. Translation include not only English translations of Urdu literature, but also translations into Urdu of English and Hindi texts, and English versions of texts originally written in Gujarati, Bangla and Hindi. Their translations have been published by leading publishers like Oxford University Press, Penguin
In 2004, the department was given DRS (Department of Research Support) status under U.G.C.’s Special Assistance Programme. The thrust area identified for the programme was “Translation of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Texts, Critical and Creative (from Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Assamese, etc.) With Complete Notes and Annotations”. The focus is on translating all of Premchand’s short stories, and then his non-fiction. Now we are in the second phase of the UGC Special Assistance Programme, DRS II, from 2009-2014.
The faculty members have published books from reputed publishers like Oxford University Press, Anthem Press, Penguin etc. The most recent publications include, Filming Fiction: Tagore, Premchand and Ray (Oxford U P) by M Asaduddin and Anuradha Ghosh, A Life in Words: Memoirs (Penguin) by M Asaduddin, Indian English Women Poets (Creative) by Anisur Rahman and Ameena K Ansari, A Voyage to Modernism: Syed Ahmad Khan (Primus) by Nishat Zaidi and Literary Theory: An Introductory Reader (Anthem) by Simi Malhotra.
