English

The Department of English, Newman College, Thodupuzha deems it our privilege to claim a history of 50 years as it commenced functioning right from the inception of the college in 1964, under the dynamic leadership of Rev. Dr. Mathew Palamattom. On 24 July 1967, it became a U.G. Department under the guidance of Prof. T.S. Thomas and the then Principal Rev Dr. Mathew Palamattom. The Department was upgraded as a PG department in 1998 and further recognised as a Research Centre by Mahatma Gandhi University on 14 July 2009.

Dedicated to the study of English language and literature, it is the only one of its kind in the high ranges of Kerala.  We are now home to 1 Associate Professor, 8 Assistant Professors, and 2 Research Guides recognized by the M.G. University, Kerala. Among them, three faculty members hold PhD degree and three have M. Phil degree and the remaining teachers are presently engaged in research exercise in the most relevant and contemporary topics. There are roughly 200 students studying at the undergraduate level, and another 38 students at the postgraduate level. The department keeps growing dramatically as a result of a general resurgence of interest in English culture, and around this period a number of faculty members are involved in the compilation of various academic journals, books, national conferences and the publication of proceedings and edited books. We are proud to number many authors among our faculty members who have poetry collections and books to their credit. Many of our faculties are nationally recognized scholars; several have received national or University recognition by engaging themselves in boards of studies and syllabus reformation committees.

The Department has been publishing an international journal entitled IJPCL(Indian Journal of Postcolonial Literatures) (ISSN 0974-7370) for the last 21 years which encompasses a wide variety of topics and critical analysis, and even creative literature from scholars in and out of the country.

The Department conducts national seminars, workshops and conferences for the faculty and the students from time to time. We promote the research aptitude of our students by encouraging them in participating and presenting papers in conferences and publishing papers in academic journals.

We have another well acclaimed venture named Litt Regatta. It is an inter-collegiate  Literary Quiz competition conducted in memory of Dr. C. J. Thomas, our former faculty who had been an eminent teacher and academician. Teams of two members each from various colleges across the state actively participate in the competition and an ever rolling trophy and cash prizes worth Rs. 5000, Rs. 3000 and Rs. 2000 are awarded to the first, second and third positions respectively.

The department with the help of the devices in Language Lab offers coaching classes for IELTS for the students and the public.

Another remarkable mission is Summer Showers, a week long spoken English class for the students from Malayalam medium schools around the college in the summer holidays every year without any monetary benefits. The faculty members enthusiastically engage in conducting classes for the pupils and promote our PG students to activate their pedagogical calibre for these students.

The department runs a Spoken English Club for those students of the college who are less competent in using English. We also offer other programmes like Bridge course for First year B.A English students, Certificate Courses for students of UG classes, ADD ON course in Communicative English, and NET coaching classes for P.G students. The department also undertakes various healthy practises like Mentoring, Remedial coaching classes, Tutorials, and Peer teaching. Another best practice followed by the department is its keen interest in releasing a department magazine every year. The department holds to its credit a Film Club and Drama Club.

The creative talents of our students are boosted up by giving them a room for manifesting their creativity in the form of a wall magazine named Expressions which is updated every month.  Most of our students run blogs in their own command and interests. The students of the department participate in university youth festival competitions and are industrious enough to participate in short film competitions conducted by leading news papers, channels and other colleges bringing in accolades to the department.