Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan, associate professor of contemporary literature, drama, film studies and popular culture in the department of humanities and social sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), is a passionate proponent of the English language, literature and classics. A former visiting scholar at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver (Canada), she has authored three books — Post-liberalisation Indian Novels in English: Global Reception and Politics of Award (2013); Arthur Miller: The Dramatist and His Universe (2005) and a novel It Happens Like This (2004), in addition to five books on English language communication targeted at industry professionals.

Newspeg. Currently Viswamohan’s energy is focused on providing students easy access to quality lectures on contemporary English language and literature, through 40 web and video courses delivered by her under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) — a joint initiative of seven premier IITs and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. NPTEL is funded by the Union HRD ministry to broadcast high-quality lectures to supplement the engineering, science and humanities education students receive in their universities. Her lectures available on the NPTEL and YouTube portals have become popular with undergrad and postgraduate students across the country. They are also featured with courses from Stanford and other US universities on a popular American web portal — Open Culture.

Direct talk. “The department’s objective is to direct students’ attention to developmentally appropriate English literature and classics. The lectures are offered free of charge, but there’s no compromise on quality. We follow a structured syllabus for our web and video lectures and after a series is completed, it is sent to experts for rigorous screening and improvement. I get considerable feedback from university students in India and abroad which motivates me to work harder in preparing my lectures,” says Viswamohan.

History. An English literature postgrad awarded a Ph D for her thesis on the works of Arthur Miller by Vikram University, Madhya Pradesh, Viswamohan pressed on to acquire a postgrad diploma in English teaching and an M.Phil from the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad. She began her professional career in 1998 as a lecturer at the Women’s Christian College, Chennai and a year later joined Stella Maris College. Between 2000-2005 Viswamohan was visiting faculty at the University of Madras and IIT-M before she was invited to join IIT-M’s humanities and social sciences school in 2006.

With her vast experience and breadth of knowledge in film studies, she also conducts screenplay writing and cinema workshops at IIT-M. “We receive over 1,000 applications internationally for each workshop, but are able to select only 200-250 participants per event,” says Viswamohan.

Future plans. Invigorated by the keen response to her web and video lectures and workshops, Viswamohan is developing an introductory course for film studies to be delivered on the NPTEL platform. “I have been invited as a member of an expert committee of Madras University for revamping its film studies curriculum, and I’m also writing a book titled Emerging Trends in Indian Cinema,” says Viswamohan.

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)