About the Department

The history of the Department of English aligns with the year Cotton College was founded in 1901. Prof F. W. Sudmersen, the Founder Principal of Cotton College, started the Department, with the aim to cater to the need for English studies in the region. The Department offered the undergraduate course in English till the year 1913-1914 when the institute was affiliated to Calcutta University. The postgraduate course in English began in the year 1914, and this marked the beginning of postgraduate education in Assam. In 1922 Prof. R. C. Goffin launched The Cotton College Magazine that was later rechristened as Cottonian. The magazine continues to be an intellectually vibrant mouthpiece for young minds to voice their thoughts on matters of socio-cultural political and literary...

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Head of the Department

  • Prof. Rakhee Kalita Moral
  • hodenglish@cottonuniversity.ac.in
  • 9871928887
  • HoD’s Address

    It is a rare privilege to belong to what is regarded as one of the pioneer departments of the erstwhile Cotton College, established in 1901, which coincides with the year of its inception. Holding the mantle from F. W. Sudmersen, the founder principal of this centennial institution, several giants and literary stalwarts have led the department from its glorious beginnings through the pressures of a historical watershed in the first half of the twentieth century to its evolvement as a fine centre for literary and creative excellence. Bearing testimony to this is the gallery of pundits and poets who have all helped erect the foundations of a strong, diverse and progressive space for the teaching and learning of English studies in the region’s premier college. A hundred years later, in the twenty-first century, the department is witness to a significant change in academic thrusts with the rise of the New and Critical Humanities in the university and scholarly pursuit of a range of explorations in the literary and cultural domains, the emergence of environmental and medical humanities and a host of interests that have also simultaneously sprung out of a robust and rich body of Anglophone and regional literatures from India’s northeast. The faculty with a wide range of expertise and qualifications provide an unarguably fertile context for the study of and research in English literature from this institution and hold out promise for new and exciting horizons in the future.

     

    Rakhee Kalita Moral, PhD

    Professor and Head, Department of English

    Cotton University

Recent Publications

  • Deka, Trishna and Arpana Nath, "Cricket as Politics: Mapping Spaces of Appropriation and Hegemony in Shashi Tharoor’s An Era of Darkness", Literary Voice , vol.1, 124-136, [2024]

  • Jeetumoni Basumatary, From Exile to Cultural Nationalism: Reading Fadhma Amrouche as a Kabyle Cultural Nationalist, The Journal of North African Studies , vol.online, [2023], https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2021.2015700

  • Deka, Trishna and Arpana Nath, "Rereading the Folk: Gender and Environmental Ethics in Cyborg Proverbs", margins: a journal of literature and culture , vol.XII, 167-179, [2023]

  • Choudhury, Madhusmita and Arpana Nath, "Postcolonial Politics and Fractured Identities in the Short Stories of Ismat Chughtai", Assonance: A Journal of Russian and Comparative Literary Studies , 335-345, [2023]

  • nasrin shahnaz & merry baruah, Quest For Identity in The Self-Narrative of Dalit Transgender Living Smile Vidya’s I Am Vidya: A Transgender’s Journey, Assonance: A Journal of Russian & Comparative Literary Studies , vol.23, 391-398, [2023]

  • nasrin shahnaz & merry baruah, Self-Narration through the Digital: A Study of Myself Mona Ahmed , Redefining Theories of Communication: 21st Century Perspectives in Language and Literature, , [2023]

  • Abhilash Kaushik and Merry Baruah, Conflicting Genders and Gender Conflicts: Elucidating “Performativity” in Kazuo Ishiguro's A Pale View of Hills , Literary Voice , vol.20:1, 19-24, [2023]

  • Risha Baruah &Merry Baruah, Speciesism and Ecology: Interplay and Interpretations of Venita Coelho's AIA Trilogy, , Literary Voice , 143-150, [2023]

  • Abhilash Kaushik and Merry Baruah, Mapping the Marginalised: The Labyrinth of (In-)effable Identity in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, Margins: a journal of literature and culture , vol.XII, 82-94, [2023]

  • Abhilash Kaushik and Merry Baruah, The 'Double Natured' Media Landscape in the Classroom: Postulating the Technicalities of Representation in the Film The Remains of the Day, FORTELL , 90-98, [2023]

  • Imsuchila Kichu, Shattering Silence through Performance: A Reading of Jane Harrison’s Stolen , Dristi: the Sight , vol.11, 149-153, [2023]

  • Jeetumoni Basumatary, Colonial Ethnography and the Rhetoric of Bodo Identity, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies , vol.24, 1247-1262, [2022], https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2021.2015700

  • Jeetumoni Basumatary, Witnessing the Bodo Identity Movement: A Reading of Mangalsingh Hazowary’s Poetry, dialog: A bi-annual peer-reviewed journal , vol.2022, 39-57, [2022]

  • Chandrima Goswami, Sharp Satire on Politicians in Power: Reading Chandrakanta Murasingh’s Of a Minister, The Journal of Oriental Research, Madras ISSN No0022-3301 , vol.XCIII-I, 195-198, [2022]

  • Merry Baruah, Anthropocentrism and Ecology: Intersections and Interactions in Shubhangi Swarup's Latitudes of Longing, IIS University Journal of Arts , vol.11(2), 114-130, [2022]

  • Merry Baruah, Silence as Narrative and the Silent Narrative: Introspecting the Impairing Imperialism in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Buried Giant, Drishti: the Sight , vol.XI, [2022]

  • Merry Baruah, Transgender Rhetoric in A Gift of Goddess Lakshmi: Reading into the Narrative of Defiance, Drishti: the Sight2022 , vol.XI, 139-143, [2022]

  • Abhilash Kaushik and Merry Baruah, Encapsulating Modernism and Beyond: Negotiations Adorning Counter-negotiations.”, The Text , vol.4, 106-115, [2022]

  • Rajashree Bargohain and Tshering Thinley, Bhutan, Western Arunachal Pradesh and Modern State-Making: Literary-[Trans]cultural Mappings in Moi Akou Janam Lom and The Circle of Karma, Waseem Anwar and Nosheen Yusaf eds. Transcultural Humanities in South Essay: Critical Essays on Literature and Culture. London and New York: Routledge, 2022. , [2022], https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003039549

  • Dr. Rakhee Kalita Moral, Narrating India’s Northeast: Contexts, Spaces, Representations”, Innerscape: Exploring Literatures from India’s North East. (Book edited by Arunabha Bhuyan), Papyrus , [2021]

  • Dr. Rakhee Kalita Moral, Once Upon the Hills: A Handbook of Feminist Voices and Everyday Practices in Nagaland, Heritage Publishing House , [2021]

  • Dr. Rakhee Kalita Moral, '"Walking with the Gods": Writing Land and Body in India's Northeast', Dibrugarh University Journal of English Studies, Vol.29 , [2021]

  • Dr. Rakhee Kalita Moral, '"The Spectre of Death in Narratives of Disease and Plagues". Reflections in the Time of the Pandemic', Anvesan, Vol. XIII (2020-2021) , [2021]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, "The Crisis of Identity: Reframing the Self in Kavery Nambisan's Mango-Coloured Fish", Indian Narrative Tradition: Text, Performance and Interpretations. New Delhi: Pencraft International, 2021,pp. 156-164. , [2021]

  • Routledge India, Uncomfortable Questions and Answers: Teaching "Death in Venice", English Teachers' Accounts: Essays on the Teacher, the Text and the Indian Classroom [Book edited by Nandana Dutta] , [2021]

  • Dr. Dhrubajyoti Das, “Sampratik Asomiya Kobitar Boudhik Swarup”, Prakash , [2020]

  • Dr. Sanghamitra Sadhu, “The Scrutinised Life: Gandhi and His Interlocutors”, Gandhi and the Contemporary World. Ed. Sanjeev Kumar. Routledge , [2020]

  • Jeetumoni Basumatary, "Mohamari Arw Thunlai" (Pandemic and Literature), Gambari, Vol. III, Issue X , [2020]

  • Rajashree Bargohain and Rohini Mokashi Punekar, Poetry, Identity and the Geography of Culture: Representations of Landscape in Poetry in English from Northeast India, Asian Ethnicity , vol.23, 47-65, [2020], 10.1080/14631369.2020.1727311

  • Dr. Rajashree Bargohain, Poetry, Identity and the Geography of Culture: Representations of Landscape in Poetry in English from Northeast India”, Asian Ethnicity (a Taylor and Francis journal) , [2020]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, "Writing as Resistance", The Book Review. Vol XLIV Number 6, June 2020 , [2020]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, "Memories of Partition", Muse India, Issue 92 (July-August 2020) , [2020]

  • Edited by Dr Arunabha Bhuyan, Reading Folklore: 'Interpreting inside out', Innerscape , vol. Departmental publication, 26 to 39, [2019]

  • Kalpana Bora, Review. Temsula Ao's "Aosenla’s Story", Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature , vol.Vol. 13, pp. 155-58, [2019], https://doi.org/10.31436/asiatic.v13i1.1494

  • Dr. Dhrubajyoti Das, Modernism in the Poetry of Navakanta Barua: A Selective Reading, Rock Pebbles, Issue 3, Vol 33 , [2019]

  • Dr. Dhrubajyoti Das, “Emersonor The American Scholar” (Emerson’s ‘The American Scholar’), Goriyoshi , [2019]

  • Dr. Dhrubajyoti Das, “Tony Morrison-or The Bluest Eye” (Tony Morrison’s ‘The Bluest Eye’), Prakash , [2019]

  • Dr. Deetimali Barua Nath, "Belief, Disbelief and Compromise" A Reading of The Gurkha's Daughter", Innerscape: Exploring Literatures from India’s North East. Book edited by Arunabha Bhuyan, Papyrus , [2019]

  • Dr. Dhrubajyoti Das,  “Poetry of Nirmalprabha Bordoloi: A Study of Nature, Love and Locale” , Innerscape: Exploring Literature from India’s Northeast (Book edited by Arunabha Bhuyan), Papyrus , [2019]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, "Ethnicity and Identity: A Reading of Select Poems by Jogamaya Chakma.”, Innerscape: Exploring Literatures from India’s North East. (Book edited by Arunabha Bhuyan), Papyrus , [2019]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, “Toril Moi: “Female, Feminine, Feminist.”, Literary and Critical Theory II, (Self Learning Materials) Block 3, UNIT: 11. KKHSOU, Guwahati , [2019]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, “Two Roads to Decolonization: Gandhi and Tagore.” Literatures from North-East India, Literatures from North-East India (In English and Translation. (Self Learning Materials) Block3, Unit: 11. KKHSOU, Guwahati , [2019]

  • Dr. Kalpana Bora Barman, Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya's Yaruingam or Love in the Time of Emergency, Literatures from North-East India (In English and Translation. (Self Learning Materials),KKHSOU, Guwahati , [2019]

  • Dr. Chandrima Goswami, Guru T Ladakhi’s A Himalayan Ballad: A Tale of Love and Longings”, Innerscape: Exploring Literatures from India’s North East.  Ed. Arunabha Bhuyan. Papyrus, , [2019]

  • Jeetumoni Basumatary, "Ratan Thiyam, The Composite Artiste: A Reading of The Manipur Trilogy", Innerscape: Exploring Literatures from India’s North East.  Ed. Arunabha Bhuyan. Papyrus , [2019]

  • Dr. Rajashree Bargohain, Envisioning a Modern Assamese Society: A Study of Jyotiprasad Agarwalla’s Khanikar”, Muse India, 83  , [2019]

  • Dr. Imsuchila Kichu, "Drinking Culture in Ao-Naga Society: From Rice Beer to Alcohol", International Journal of English Language Literatures and Translation Studies (IJELR), Vol. 6, Issue 2 , [2019]

  • Rajashree Bargohain, Blind’ Fate and the Disabled Genius: Postcoloniality and ‘Translation’ in Saurabh Kumar Chaliha’s “Beethoven”, Someshwar Sati and GJV Prasad eds. Disability in Translation: The Indian Experience. London: Routledge, 2019. , 119-132, [2019], https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429319570

  • Rajashree Bargohain, Envisioning a Modern Assamese Society: A Study of Jyotiprasad Agarwalla’s Khanikar, MuseIndia , vol.83, [2019]

  • Dr. Dhrubajyoti Das, “Re-reading Select Nature Poems of Nirmalprabha Bordoloi and Emily Dickinson from Ecocritical Perspective”, Remarking- An Analisation, Vol 3, Issue 9 , [2018]

  • Dr. Merry Baruah Bora, “Constructing Womanhood: Discourse of Femininity in Select Indian Advertisements”, Dimorian Review, Vol 5.2 , [2018]

  • Dr. Rakhee Kalita Moral, “Scripting the Freedom Song: The Moment of Dissent in Assam”, RivistaDegliStudi Orientale (University of Rome) Vol XCI, Supplement 2 , [2018]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, The Politics of Food Cultures of India". Book Review of Nandita Haksar's The Flavours of Nationalism, Coldnoon: International Journal of Travel Writing and Travelling Cultures , [2018]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, "Baby Haldar's A Life Less Ordinary: Domestic Work, Motherhood, and the Dalit Woman", Antyajaa: Indian Journal of Women and Social Change. Vol 3.2, , [2018]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, Book Review of Avinuo Kire's The Power to Forgive (Zubaan Books, 2016)., MZU Journal of Literature and Cultural Studies, V.1, June 2018. , [2018]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, "Women of Nagaland" Book Review of Temsula Ao's Aosenla's Story (Zubaan Books, 2017), Muse India, Issue 79 , [2018]

  • Dr. Arpana Nath, Reading Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable as a Critique of Colonial Modernity”, Rethinking Colonialism and Globalisation: The Historical Saga of India from the 19th century onwards (Book edited by Madhuri Saikia), DVS Publishers, Delhi , [2018]

  • Jeetumoni Basumatary, 'Community Fiction: Mamang Dai’s The Legends of Pensam and Temsula Ao’s These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone’, Indian Genre Fiction: Pasts and Future Histories, Routledge , [2018]

  • Dr. Rajashree Bargohain, "Her Thighs Still Smell of Milk”: Partition and Poetry in Northeast India” , Café Dissensus 44 Spec. Issue of Women as the Displaced: The Context of South Asia , [2018]

  • Dr. Rajashree Bargohain, "Locating Polyphony: A Study of the Ramayana in Assam”, Margins: A Journal of Literature & Culture VII-VIII(The journal of the Department of English, Gauhati University) , [2018]

  • Rajashree Bargohain and Rohini Mokashi Punekar, Locating Polyphony: A Study of the Ramayana in Assam, Margins: A Journal of Literature & Culture , vol.VII-VIII, [2018]

  • Rajashree Bargohain and Rohini Mokashi Punekar, “Her Thighs Still Smell of Milk”: Partition and Poetry in Northeast India, Cafe Dissensus , vol.44, [2018]

  • Afsan B Barbhuiyan Edited by Dr Garima Kalita, Y Ibomcha: A Modernist with a Difference, Reading India's North East: Literature Land and People , vol. Departmental publication, 123 -135, [2016]

  • Merry Baruah, Voices from the Margin: A Reading of Otherness in Dawn, Research Journal of Contemporary Concerns , vol.10&11(A), [2016]

  • Rajashree Bargohain and Rohini Mokashi Punekar, Modern Quests, Ancient Lore: Reading Poetry in English from Northeast India, Margaret L. Pachuau and T. Dhanajit Singh Eds. Emergent Identities in Literature. New Delhi: Headword, 2016. , 75-88, [2016]

  • Merry Baruah, Empowerment of Women: Indian Patriarchy and the Cultural Construction of the Family, Research Journal of Contemporary Concerns , vol.9(A), 3-6, [2014]

  • Merry Baruah, 2. The Body in the Family Politic: Reading Shashi Deshpande’s Moving On and In the Country of Deceit, The Atlantic Literary Review (Quarterly) , vol.13, 96-111, [2012]

  • Merry Baruah, Quest for Identity: A Reading of Shashi Deshpande's Small Remedies, Negotiations , vol.2, 24-29, [2012]

  • Kalpana Bora and Rohini Mokashi Punekar, ‘Maximum City[i]’: Bombay, Spatial Politics, and Representation, Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Urban and ExtraUrban Studies , vol.1, 151-166, [2011], https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8676/CGP/v01i03/5380

  • Merry Baruah/Dibrugarh University, Dept of English, Myths in Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terrors and A Matter of Time, DUJES , vol.18, [2009]

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Scholarly Resources

  • Publications 70
  • Conference/In Proceedings
  • Book/Book Chapter