Anant Fellowship, during the lockdown, launched ‘Anant Fellowship Online’, a seminar series to facilitate conversations around the fellowship curriculum and experience. These programmes are crafted to provide the audience with an exciting glimpse into the world of the Fellowship Programme at AnantU. It also provides the audience an opportunity to interact with inspirational speakers, practitioners, faculty members, and AnantU Fellows. As part of this initiative, the following webinars were arranged which covered a wide range of topics.
Anant Fellowship Online
On May 15, in continuation with Anant Fellowship Online seminar series, a webinar on ‘Think Naturally, Built Naturally- A webinar on Biomimicry’ was conducted. The speaker, Dr Jamie Miller, Founder, Biomimicry Frontiers, discussed in depth the unabating need to confront challenges which require adaptive manner of thinking. He further focused on the effect of adapting changes and how biomimicry; delving into the depth of nature; is a possible solution. The webinar was facilitated by Seema Anand and Prashant Dhawan, Founders, Biomimicry India.
On May 16, a panel on ‘What can writing do for you?’ was hosted as part of Anant Fellowship Online seminar series. The panel comprised Saurav Goswami (gdotg), Deepti Sreeram (Anant Fellowship), Anuja Dasgupta (Naropa Fellowship), Anuj Gupta (Young India Fellowship) and Sandeep Sen (Vedica Scholars). The panellists focused on bursting the myth that writing only holds relevance for poets and novelists and discussed at length how writing could help a student’s ability to learn and perform better in their professional life.
On May 22, a webinar on ‘What do we not learn at Universities’ was conducted which focussed on the importance of ethical courage. Harinder Singh Sikka, Group Director – Strategic Business, Piramal Enterprises, the speaker for the webinar, focused on how humans have detached themselves from ethical and moral values in the current scenario. He further discussed the impact of a great teacher in one’s life and the positive consequences attached to it. Bhavesh Gandhi, Faculty, Anant Fellowship, facilitated the webinar.
On May 29, Anant Fellowship Online conducted yet another webinar on ‘The Medium is The Message’. The speaker for the webinar was Andrew McLuhan, Director, The McLuhan Institute. It mainly focussed on Marshall McLuhan’s theory, which states that the nature of the message; the channel through which the message is transmitted is more important than the content of the message itself.
‘The medium is the message’ is a phrase that was coined by the Canadian communication thinker Marshall McLuhan, and was first introduced in his book ‘Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man’, published in 1964, Madhusudan Mukerjee, Faculty, Anant Fellowship, facilitated the webinar.
On June 5, a webinar titled, ‘Lessons from Sufism: Heer-Ranjha in the Black Garden’ was held. The distinguished speaker for the webinar was Madan Gopal Singh, an Indian composer, singer, lyricist, actor, screenwriter, film theorist, editor and polyglot. The webinar involved a seminar and performance on the history of travelling songs. During the webinar, Madan Gopal Singh, spoke about the interpretation of Sufi philosophy through music. Sharmila Sagara, Faculty, Anant Fellowship, moderated the webinar.
On June 12, the 6th webinar, titled, ‘A Historical Perspective on Indian Education’ was held. The speaker for the webinar, Dr Indira Parikh, Founder President of Flame University, discussed in depth how education in India in the past has been value-based and deeply intertwined with philosophy. During the webinar, Dr Parikh further discussed a few of the influential ideas from the past and examined how they could help reshape the modern education system. The webinar was moderated by Meghna Ajit, Faculty, Anant Fellowship.
On June 19, Anant Fellowship Online, conducted a webinar on ‘The Recovery of the Ocean: How you can play a role upstream?’. The speaker, Doug Woodring, Founder and Director of the Ocean Recovery Alliance, discussed in depth how we as individuals could play a part in the recovery of the ocean. Anubha Kakroo, Faculty, Anant Fellowship, moderated the webinar
On June 26, the 8th webinar titled, ‘Reshaping Indian Cinema: Using art to bring out the stories that matter’ was conducted. The speaker, Leena Yadav, an Indian Film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor, talked about her perspective on art and cinema and the correlation between the two. She has used the expression of art in her cinema to bring to light the vulnerabilities that women face in the modern world. Further, she discussed how cinema could be used to create art that explored stories of gender politics. The webinar was moderated by Sharmila Sagara, Faculty, Anant Fellowship.
