About the Department

The Department of English was established in 1966 as a UG Department. It was upgraded to a PG Department in 1982. From a modest beginning, the Department has carved a niche for itself due to its constant yearning for the pursuit of excellence and an unfailing commitment to add value to its curriculum by organizing various types of co-curricular and extracurricular activities. It has got a “Star Department” status under the UGC CPE grant.

Shri Manoranjan Bhattacharya was the first Head of the Department who retired in 1994. Shri Deepak Mathur joined the Department in 1982. Till his untimely death in 2007, he rendered his services to the Department. At present, there are four Faculties in the Department:

1. Dr. Madhu D Singh (Professor and Head)

2. Dr. Jyoti Pandey (Assistant Professor)

3. Dr. Anupam Sanny (Assistant Professor)

4. Mr Ashish A Henry (Lab Instructor – ELL, Visiting Faculty)

There are 40 seats at the PG level and 80 at the UG level. Besides this, the Department is also a Centre of Research, guiding Ph.D.  students. All the three faculties of the Department are approved Research Guides.

Scholars Awarded Ph.D./ M.Phil. /Pursuing Ph.D. Program:

Students’ Achievements:

Merit Positions in HNB University:

Selections in NET/SET/Pre Ph.D./M.Phil. /LT:

Placements:

• Bhuvanesvari  R - Asstt  Professor,  VIT, Chennai

• Sugandh Singh - Guest Faculty, Dept of English, Tejpur University, Assam

• Amrit Sufi - Asstt Professor, Dept of English, Doon University, Dehradun

• Albert L. Kaihru - Guest faculty Dept of English, Maitreyi College University of Delhi

• Yachna Suryavanshi - Asstt Professor Dept of English, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun

• Munmun Katharpi - Language and Culture Assistant Program Spain

• Sonakshi Dutta - CRPF Public School, New Delhi

• Kalpa Bharadwaj - Shikshankur Global School,Dehradun

• Abhavya Goel - Shivalik International School, Dehradun

• Astha Aswal - Asstt Lecturer, Rashtriya Inter College Baun, Panjiyala Uttarkashi

• Amit Shalaria - Sales Officer HDFC, Gurugram

• Ankit - Management Trainee and Business Development Associate in Careers 360, Gurugram

• Arjun Singh - Lecturer, Rashtriya Inter college Kathudkhal, Thalisain, Pauri Garhwal

• Pooja Gupta - Asstt Professor, UPES, Dehradun

• Sohan Lal - TGT Teacher in Kendriya Vidyalaya, Arunachal Pradesh

• Amandeep Kaur - Asstt Professor, SGRR University

• Gurudev - PCS, Uttarakhand

Scholarships: The Dept awards the following scholarships to the meritorious/ economically disadvantaged students:

• Arvind Bandhu Smriti Gyan Jyoti Puraskar:  Rs 2100/- to the topper of M A English (Final) w.e.f .2005

• Kamla Chaudhary Smriti Gyan Jyoti Puraskar:  Rs 2100/- to the topper of B A (Final) w.e.f. 2013

• Sarmishtha Devi Smriti Gyan Jyoti Puraskar:  Rs 2100/- To the student of M A English Ist sem with the highest marks at UG level and with lowest income per annum, w.e.f. 2020

Departmental Newsletter: The Mirror: The department is publishing annual newsletter since 2018

Activities: The Dept organizes various co-curricular, extracurricular activities like Quizzes, Extempore Speech Competitions, Visits to Literature Festivals, Staging of Plays, Review writing, Screening of Classics, adaptations of novels/ plays of famous authors like Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, G B Shaw, and so on.  Many of these activities are conducted under the aegis of English Literary Society (ELS).

Established in 2008, ELS strives to expand the creative horizons of students. The Society acknowledges its indebtedness to Pujya Shrimahant Devendra Dass Ji Maharaj for appreciating our endeavor and contributing Rs 5100/- as a token of his blessings. The ELS invites eminent scholars / creative writers of English who interact with students and hone their creative/ communicative skills. The scholars invited so far include:

Prof Jaiwanti Dimri, a bilingual creative writer, former Fellow IIAS Shimla, Former Head, Dept of English HP University, Shimla and recipient of Arya Smriti Sahitya Samman  ( 2010)

Prof. Rashmi Gaur Dept of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee (2011)

Dr. Jaskiran Chopra, Journalist and creative writer, author of Autumn Raga (2012)

Ms. Rati Agnihotri, Creative writer, and correspondent World CNN TV (2014)

Ankit Gusain, Creative writer, author of the novel The Dark Romance (2015)

Dr. Raj Dhar: Academician and author

Anurag Shourie: A doctor by profession and author of the novel Half Shadow (2017)

Dr. Harshvardhan Khimta: Author of Maidens of Trafford House (Short story collection) 2018

Ms. Rashmi Trivedi, Freelance writer (2020)

Ms. Neha Soi, Assistant Professor, MCM DAV College for women (Chandigarh) 

Dr. Alka Tyagi, Associate Professor Dyal Singh Evening College, Delhi University

Quiz Competitions

Idioms and Phrases Quiz (2009), Homophones Quiz (2010) Flags of Nations Quiz (2012) Mottos of Organisations Quiz (2012)

Visits to Literature Festivals/WIC

• Jaipur Literature Festival - 2017  

• Kerala Literature Festival - 2018

• Doon Literature Festival - 2017    

• Festivals/Talks organized by WIC (World Integrity Centre), Dehradun

Invited Lectures/Founder Memorial Lecture Series/Organisation of Seminars / Webinars / Workshops:

The Dept has started a Lecture Series titled Founder Memorial Lecture Series (FMLS) since 2018 in the memory of the founder of our college Brahmaleen Shri Mahant Indiresh Charan Dass Ji Maharaj. Renowned scholar Prof Kapil Kapoor (Former Pro Vice-chancellor, JNU) delivered the inaugural lecture of this series on the topic: Indian Knowledge Systems on 25 October 2018.

Under Women’s Studies Centre (a UGC sponsored project), four books namely Women in Twenty-First Century: Opportunities and Challenges, Triveni, Uttarakhand ki Mahilaon ka Sahitya Mein Yogdaan and Short Stories and Memoirs of Women Writers of Uttarakhand have been published besides nine issues of the WSC newsletter Shaktiroopa.

Mentorship Programme:  The Department has a mentorship program in place in which the faculty members / senior students guide and mentor the junior students.

The English Language Lab:

The English Language Lab was established in 2014 with the objective of training the students in English communication skills, as proficiency in English speaking, is a prerequisite to good job prospects. A Three-Month Certificate Course in English Speaking and Personality Development is being run by the Department.  At present Mr Ashish A Henry is working as Lab Instructor. As under CBCS pattern, the English Language is a Compulsory Course for B A students, the students in general benefit from the modules available in the Lab.

Innovative Practices:

• Students are actively involved in the organization of seminars/ quizzes/ invited talks and other activities conducted by the dept. This develops their organizational skills, leadership qualities, and teamwork.

• Dept library-related work (issuing and returning of books/Journals, accession of new issues of journals) is handled by the students.

• Students actively participate in sharing any new knowledge acquired by them through the reading of newspaper or any other source by pasting it on the wall magazine especially created for this purpose in the dept. They also express themselves through cartoons, posters, and drawings on the Wall Magazine.