Education & English (E&E) Online Seminar Series
The CWC is organizing the Education & English (E&E) Online Seminar Series over the 2026 summer semester. Intended as intensive dialogues, these sessions will take the form of a short overview of a pre-assigned reading/activity by the speaker, followed by an open floor discussion. The inaugural session will see Prof. Amol Padwad (Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi) discuss various conceptions of difficult circumstances (DC) and how they interact with action research (AR) pertaining to English Language Teaching. In the second session, Prof. Sachin Labade (University of Mumbai) will offer a glimpse at the survival of colonial prescriptivism in India through the publication history of popular Indian usage guides, before discussing what contemporary Indian English usages tell us about attitudes towards such prescriptivism. The third session will feature Dr. Mohini Gupta (Aarhus University, Denmark) taking the participants through theories across sociolinguistics, critical pedagogies, and language politics, to understand the moment in which current language textbooks are being created in India. Prof. Kailash C. Baral (EFLU Hyderabad) will make a case for the reconfiguration of English Language Teaching into a dynamic space using an approach that draws from critical pedagogy, multilingualism, translation studies, and postcolonial theory in the fourth and penultimate session. The series will conclude with a lesson demonstration by Dr. Anurima Chanda (Birsa Munda College, Darjeeling), drawing on her practice as a children’s author and translator in the English classroom. Through these sessions, we aim to open up and sustain conversations at the intersections of English, language(s), and education in India. In doing this the series seeks to help ELT professionals at various stages throughout India to engage critically with the variegated nature of their pedagogical practices.
Creative Programmes
CWC organizes a wide range of creative programmes that address a variety of issues under the scope of writing and communication. These programs are open to everyone, and cater to a diverse audience from various academic or professional backgrounds and makes for highly engaging sessions with a myriad of perspectives. Since the inception of CWC, these programmes have revolved around themes that include, but are not limited to, creative writing, research practices, communication, music, computer programming, journalism, cinema, comics, law, and photography. Some of our recent sessions included: Citation as Feminist Praxis by Vinky Mittal; Curating South Asia: How artifacts from the past are relevant in the present? by Archishman Sarker; Unveiling the Art of Popular Science Writing by Mannish Pandey; Willful Words: Weaving a Feminist Glossary by Neerav Dwivedi and Suniti Madaan. Some of our previous sessions included: What’s In a Label? Writing Museum Labels and Catalogue Raisonné by Archishman Sarker; Reading Affect: How Emotions Structure an Archive by Vinky Mittal; Workshop on Fair Paraphrase by Vrinda Chopra; Crafting Effective Transition and Flow by Sampurna Dutta ; Storytelling Through Wordless Picture Books by Anagha Gopal; Art-e-Fact: A Workshop On Narrative Journalism by Jyotirmoy Talukdar; A Workshop On Storytelling In International Development by Vrinda Chopra; Call and Response: Effectively Crafting Conference Abstracts by Senjuti Chakraborti; and Storytelling In Science by Ipsita Herlekar.
CWC Engage
Under the CWC Engage initiative, CWC lends its expertise to other institutions of higher education in the country to teach academic and research writing. The workshops are designed keeping in mind the requirements of professionals and students from various backgrounds. Some of the institutions we have worked with include: Indian Sociological Society, Department of English, University of Kashmir; Department of Biochemistry, Deshbandhu College, University of Delhi; Faculty of Architecture and Faculty of Design at CEPT University, Ahmedabad; Department of Political Science, Department of History and Department of Philosophy at Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi; Holematthi Nature Foundation, Bengaluru; Placement and Internship Cell for Humanities and Social Sciences Courses, Ramanujan College, University of Delhi; School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; School of Urban Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi; Department of Sociology, Gauhati University; Gangadharpur Mahavidyamandir, Howrah among others.
Media
The Centre for Writing and Communication engages in a range of media activities for expanding and deepening its engagement with the Ashoka Community and beyond. Through our social media channels we cover a diverse range of extra-curricular and creative activities such as CWCRecommendations, a Podcast Back to the Tutor, Shelf Pick and Insta-Live sessions. We also share posts on writing inspiration and motivation, eminent scholars, poets & authors, and our teaching & research activities.
CWC Shelf-Pick
Shelf-Pick, CWC’s eclectic, longest-running YouTube series, offers book recommendations spanning various disciplines and genres. Comprising videos by CWC team members (past and present), guest scholars, and practitioners from institutions like SOAS (London), University of Kashmir, University of Newcastle, and IIT Guwahati, each episode invites viewers to explore a rich collection of texts across languages, regions, and cultures. Some popular and recent shelf-picks include those by: Dr. Mufti Mudasir Farooqi, Dr. Christian Luczanits, Prof. Dermot Killingley, Javaid Rahi, Dr. Arupjyoti Saikia, Anusha Krishnan, and Dr. Kaushik Bhaumik.
CWC Recommendations
The CWC curates #CWCRecommendations on Instagram, spotlighting tutors’ varied interests in films, books, and art. Themed recommendations mark events like writers’ birthdays and international observances. In 2023-24, the popular series featured translated Japanese literature, World Poetry Day, and Indian literature in translation. Additionally, CWC published birthday posts honouring Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, Savitribai Phule, and celebrated International Women’s Day.
GupShup Book Club
CWC launched its inaugural reading circle, the Gupshup Book Club, this year. A team member suggests a short reading, followed by a casual one-hour discussion session. Gupshup offers a break from formal learning, rekindling the joy of leisure reading and fostering community connections. For our Spring semester gathering, we led with a film screening followed by a discussion of related themes and readings, in order to expand our modes of engagement across media.
See an introduction to our centre here:
