Events 

1. Seminar on Bharatiya Jyancharchar Dhara Kake Bole? Itihasher Aloye on 29^th August 2025 
2. International Seminar on “Not a Part of History: Sexual Harassment in Colonial India” on 12^th March 2025 
3. Seminar on Man Ki Baat: Prasange Shilalipi, Anushange Ashok on 9^th December 2024 
4. Observing Heritage Week - Seminar On “Heritage Tourism: Theory and Practice, Employability and Opportunities” on 22^nd November 2024
5. Peer Teaching Of Semester VI Students 23^rd April 2025
6. Inter-College and Inter-Departmental Students’ Presentation in observance of World Peace Day on 21^st September 2023 
7. Summer Internship Programme on “Indian Palaeography: Application of Practical Knowledge” from 25^th May to 20^th June 2025 (blended mode)
8. Rabindra Jayanti programme by Department of History and IQAC in collaboration with Shyampur Siddheshwari Mahavidyalaya on 8^th May 2026 
9. Peer teaching 16^th January 2026 
10. Teachers’ Day Celebration – departmental 8^th September 2025 

Visits 

1. Visit to Book Fair Organized by Rani Birla Girls College (9th-10th January 2024)
2. Museum visit programme on January 31, 2024
3. Educational Excursion to Indian Museum on 23^rd February 2024 
4. Museum visit programme on March 5, 2024
5. Educational Excursion to Tagore Research Institute 8^th May 2025

Reports of Seminar Activities of the Department of History (2018 -19 to 2022-23)

INTER - COLLEGE MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDENTS' PAPER PRESENTATION CUM SEMINAR ON THE CENTENARY OF THE TERMINATION OF WORLD WAR I

On 17th of August, 2018, the Department of History, Women’s Christian College, organized a one-day Inter-college, Multidisciplinary Students’ Paper Presentation cum Seminar to commemorate the occasion of the centenary of the termination of the Great War. The seminar saw students participating from 12 colleges and universities across Calcutta and even beyond. The participants who shared their diverse takes on the subject included those belonging to Lady Brabourne College, St. Xaviers College (Raghavpur), Loreto College, Scottish Church College, RKM Narendrapur, Shri Shikshayatan College, Bhowanipore Education Society, Bijoy Krishna Girls College (Howrah), Bangabasi Morning College, Diamond Harbour Women’s University, Muralidhar Girls College and the host college as well. In fact, Famia Azka of our own department spoke on ‘Women and World War I.’ The key speaker for the occasion was Prof. Sabyasachi Dasgupta, Assistant Professor, Viswa Bharati, Santiniketan, who spoke at length of the discriminatory recruitment policies in the colonial army since the Great Revolt and after, placing special emphasis on the Indian contingent that had been forced to fight on behalf of the Allies in the Middle East. The seminar ended with a lively question-answer session.

FACULTY EXCHANGE PROGRAMME - 1

As part of the Faculty Exchange Programme of the Department of History, Women’s Christian College, Prof. Debasish Chowdhury, Assistant Professor of Bangabasi Morning College, spoke on ‘The History of Mesopotamia,’ on 24th August, 2018. Being an integral part of the new CC2 syllabus of CBCS, the lecture proved to be immensely beneficial to our First Year students. Through his presentation Prof. Chowdhury gave fascinating insights into this exotic civilization, by way of harping on the anthropological, sociological and mythological diversity of ancient Mesopotamia proper. The lecture was well attended as students and faculty of the department along with a few of those of others thronged the auditorium to listen to the speaker. The lecture was a reciprocal one as Nabanita Mitra, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Women’s Christian College, had already delivered a lecture on ‘Ancient Indian Historiography,’ at Bangabasi Morning College on 13th August, 2018.

FACULTY EXCHANGE PROGRAMME (ONLINE) - 2

The Dept of History, Women’s Christian College organised an Online Faculty Exchange Programme with the Department of History, Sammilani Mahavidyalaya in June 2021. While Sm Kasturi Kar, Assistant Professor, Sammilani Mahavidyalaya took classes on Nationalism and the Social Classes (Module IV of CC13) on 23rd and 24th June, 2021, Dr. Nabanita Mitra, Assistant Professor, Women’s Christian College took classes on Interpreting 18th century debate (Module V of CC11 of CBCS) on 22nd and 25th June, 2021. The joint classes with students belonging to both the institutions proved beneficial as they were both lively and interactive in nature. 

EDUCATIONAL EXCURSION - 1

The Department of History, Women’s Christian College had visited the State Archaeological Museum, Behala and Gurusaday Museum, Joka on 14 th November, 2019, as a part of their Museum Visit Programme. A total of 60 students of Semesters 2, 4 and 6 along with three faculty members of the aforesaid department took part in the exercise, which was both fruitful and enriching for them all. The day being Children’s Day, the students seemed enthusiastic right from the very beginning. They got to see the different nuances of archaeological history unfolding before their eyes as they entered the State Archaeological Museum, - things that they normally would have studied through their texts and reference books alone. They were guided through galleries and halls containing relics from the past, studying the details of the artefacts displayed even while jotting down copious notes wherever necessary. The visit to Gurusaday Museum was likewise edifying as it contained a vast array of the personal collections and memorabilia of Gurusaday Dutta, (civil servant, folklorist, and writer, besides being the founder of the Bratachari Movement in the 1930s),. ranging from Nakshikantha to different forms of folk and tribal art besides other heirlooms donated by his family. In all, the Museum Visit Programme was both informative and enjoyable.

EDUCATIONAL EXCURSION - 2 

The Department of History, Women’s Christian College had visited St. John’s Church, Victoria Memorial Museum and Alipore Jail Museum on 2 nd December, 2022 as a part of their Museum Visit Programme. A total of 49 students of Semesters 2, 4 and 6, belonging to the said department as well as a few students belonging to History General accompanied by four faculty members had undertaken the programme. Like as with other heritage tours, students and faculty got a taste of the old world charm of colonial Calcutta, evident through the architectural grandeur of the marble edifices, the beautiful Company paintings, history galleries displaying British regalia, et al. The visit to the newly-constructed Alipore Jail Museum however left an altogether different impact. Seeped as it were in the nationalist history of the heroic freedom fighters of Bengal, it left the students emotional visualising the sacrifices that the former had had to make by undergoing a series of draconian and bestial punitive torture that had been inflicted on them. All said, the visit to the three important museums dotting the city was a fruitful and educative exercise for students and teachers alike as they not only got to know and learn about their past from up close but which also enabled them to see history come alive right before them.

VALUE ADDED COURSE ON WOMEN'S STUDIES

The Dept of History conducted an extremely fruitful 32 hours Value Added Course on Women's Studies from 12th April to 4th May, 2023. The course curriculum designed by the departmental faculty members covered a diverse range of themes centering around the literary, intellectual, artistic, historical and sociological contribution of women in India down the ages. The resource persons, mostly comprising in-house faculty members of the college as well as a few scholars of repute from without, mesmerised the audience with their interesting takes on a diverse range of topics related to Indian women. The section on students' paper presentation also saw thought-provoking and well-researched papers from our Semester 6 students as well. 

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME ON IKS

Our College IQAC in collaboration with the Dept of History organised a 5 Day Faculty Development Programme on Indian Knowledge Systems from 10th to 14th June 2023, wherein in-house faculty members from the departments of Economics, Sanskrit, Political Science, and Bengali captivated the audience comprising faculty members with their diverse and interesting takes on a gamut of subjects ranging from ancient Indian economic systems, popular participation in forest management, Tagore's musical philosophy, Hindi Bhasha and Sahitya, and history of Bengal's masks.

STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECT ON NEIGHBOURHOOD STUDIES (ESHONA)

Our departmental students conducted a painstaking Research Project on their Neighbourhood. Titled as Eshona or Quest, they sought to explore the immediate vicinity of their educational institution by donning the lens of debutante historians. The sites they researched into comprised the Kalighat Temple, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Kalighat Tram Depot, the Tagore Research Institute and Jogesh Mime Academy - all at a stone's throw from their college, exuding an old world charm of their own, which our students rightly felt that needed to be cherished, preserved and celebrated.

STUDENT RESEARCH PROJECT ON INDIAN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS i.e. IKS (PRACHYA)

Students of our department also undertook the Research Project Prachya to acknowledge their adherence to Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) which remains as a cornerstone of NEP 2020. Amongst the wide plethora of subjects that IKS encompasses, our students have sought to engage with a few genres of regional Indian art. In fact, their laborious research on Pala paintings, Kalighat Paintings and Bengal School of Art speaks volumes of their penchant for different forms of regional artistic expressions and their academic quest to form their own perspectives on the same. 

RECRUITMENT DRIVE IN COLLABORATION WITH KOTAK LIFE INSURANCE

The Career Counselling & Placement Cell as well as the Dept of History organised an Orientation Programme to recruit Graduate Trainees from amongst our B.A./B.Sc 2021 passouts on 8^th October, 2021 in collaboration with Kotak Life Insurance. There was a presentation by Kotak Life via Zoom followed by a behavioural and cognitive test, that was undertaken by 35-odd students, out of whom 7 were shortlisted for the next HR round. 

DEPARTMENTAL ACTIVITIES PRIOR TO JULY 2018

• Students were taken on an educational tour to Jorasanko, Indian Museum and Town Hall on 3rd December, 2014.
•  ICHR-sponsored National-level Seminar on ‘Exploring Eurasia: Traditions and Prospects,’ in collaboration with MAKAIAS and China Centre, C.U. on 11th November, 2016.
•  A seminar on the ‘History of Kolkata: Evolution and Myths,’ in collaboration with Computer Education Centre, WCC, on 14th July, 2017.
•  Students Programme marking 70 years of Indian Independence titled ‘Swadhinata Sottor,’ on 18th September, 2017.
•  An Inter-College, Multidisciplinary Students’ Paper Presentation cum Seminar on ‘The Centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution,’ in collaboration with Gorky Sadan, on 10th November, 2017.
•  Students were taken on an educational tour to Police Museum, Rammohan Roy Memorial Museum and Asiatic Society Museum on 23rd March, 2018.

FUTURE ROAD MAP

The Department of History has tried to nurture the values ingrained by the founders of Women’s Christian College. Open to new ideas and developments, the History Department of this college, endeavors to overcome difficulties and create a dream for the students of this department beyond mundane classroom teaching. Progress of women’s education consequently leading to empowerment of women is the prime motto of the faculty members. In order to attain this goal, the department plans to make class room teaching more meaningful in the coming years. Participation of students in departmental seminars, inter-college seminars, peer teaching programmes and group discussions help them overcome their initial limitations and prepare them for the outside world. Students of this department are encouraged to pursue higher studies. They are also familiarized with the prospects of future jobs. For this purpose placement drives with multinational companies like Kotak Life Insurance have been arranged and the department has plans to organize such drives on a regular basis, involving the participation of experts, who can guide the students in the right direction.  The department also plans to facilitate student placements by collaborating with MoU institutions. A laptop with internet facility for specific use of the department has been provided by the college.  Creating a permanent fund for the financially backward students, to aid their higher studies even after they leave their parent institution is seriously intended. The introduction of some short-term self-financed history-allied subjects like heritage tourism may benefit the students of this department and at the same time can earn revenue for this college. The faculty members while taking part in all the activities of the college and meeting out all the responsibilities entrusted by Calcutta University, to which the college is affiliated, try to achieve optimal benefits for its students both at present and even in future. The department tries to impart to its students holistic education which seeks to give them a voice of their own so that they can make a place for themselves in the society at large.