Dr Shanti Chief Guest at the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Contesting Violence: Literature, Culture and Society

Zaid Shamsuddin

Dr Shanti C Sandaran, a Senior Lecturer from Language Academy, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, was honoured as a Plenary Speaker and Chief Guest earlier this year, at the International Interdisciplinary Conference on Contesting Violence: Literature, Culture and Society.

The conference was organised by the Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University Nanded (SRTMUN), Maharashtra, INDIA on 20-21^st January 2020. With over 350 participants, the conference was jointly organised by the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies and School of Social Sciences, SRTMUN.

For her plenary talk entitled ‘Investigating War and Terrorism and the Impact on Compassion: The Need for an Eclectic Approach’, Dr Shanti, discussed about the dominant political discourses of the 21^st Century, namely, discourses of War and Terror that have not only become a part of the global campaign against terrorism, but also permeated the mundane everyday practices of people. She emphasised that a single data set or theory would only be able to reveal one aspect of the study. However, an eclectic approach could enveil ‘the bigger picture’ of how the discourses of war and terror become a part of society’s practices. To illustrate how the hidden agenda of ideology and hegemony trickle down to society, she drew on her past research on ‘Compassion and War’, and the eclectic approach that employed multiple theories, contexts, methodologies, data sets and analytical frameworks.

As the Chief Guest for the conference, Dr Shanti had the privilege of meeting the Honourable Vice Chancellor of Professor Udhav Bhosle. And afterwards, she was invited for a discussion over tea with the respected members of the university, where they discussed about Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and possible opportunities for collaborations in the future.