Event Details
Academic Dialogue Series, Lecture 2
FROM 11 Dec 2025 TO 11 Dec 2025
Venue : CDOE - SMU @
EVENT REPORT
| 1. Title of Event | Academic Dialogue Series, Lecture 2 |
| 2. Organized By | Research Committee, Centre for Distance and Online Education (CDOE) |
| 3. Under the Banner of | Centre for Distance and Online Education (CDOE), Sikkim Manipal University |
| 4. Collaboration With | NA |
| 5. Student Event | No |
| 6. Externally Funded | No |
| 7. Funding Agency | NA |
| 8. Nature of Participants | Both Internal & External Participants |
| 9. Number of Participants |
Total: 21 Internal: Yes External: Yes |
| 10. Mode | Both Online & Offline |
| 10A. Online Meeting Link | https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZDc3NjdjMjYtZTUyMy00YWQ1LWEyNjEtZGQwMDA4MzFkMjBj%40thread.v2 |
| 11. Date | 11 December 2025 |
| 12. Coordinator | Research Committee, CDOE |
| 13. List of Participants | Attached |
RESOURCE PERSON(S)
| Sl. No. | Name | Affiliation |
| 1 | Dr. Sudeshna Dutta | Assistant Professor & Program Coordinator (English), CDOE, SMU |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION / REPORT WITH GEO-TAGGED PHOTOGRAPHS
As part of the Academic Dialogue Series organised by the Research Committee of the Centre for Distance and Online Education (CDOE), Lecture 2 was conducted as a commemorative lecture-cum-screening session on the occasion of the 250th Birth Anniversary of Jane Austen. The session featured Dr. Sudeshna Dutta as the speaker. The participants were addressed by Dr. Ishwer Shivakoti, Assistant Director, CDOE, SMU, who encouraged the Research Committee to continue organising research-oriented academic engagements.
The seminar witnessed enthusiastic participation from faculty and staff members of CDOE, who demonstrated keen interest in the theme and discussions. The session uniquely combined an academic lecture with the screening of the film Mona Lisa Smile, conceptualised as an intellectual tribute to Jane Austen’s enduring engagement with issues of womanhood, social norms, and the institution of marriage.
In her lecture, Dr. Dutta critically examined Mona Lisa Smile as a cultural text that interrogates historically entrenched expectations imposed upon women, particularly within elite educational and domestic spaces. Drawing implicit connections with Austen’s literary universe, she explored how marriage often functions not merely as a personal or romantic choice, but as a socially regulated institution shaped by patriarchal values, class hierarchies, and moral discipline.
Dr. Dutta further reflected on women’s education as a contested site that simultaneously enables intellectual empowerment while reinforcing ideological conformity. This perspective resonated strongly with Austen’s nuanced representations of female agency negotiated within restrictive social structures.
The session was marked by a high degree of interactivity, with participants engaging critically through guided questions and open discussion. The dialogue highlighted continuities between nineteenth-century social constraints and contemporary gendered expectations, particularly in relation to women’s autonomy, choices, and the social politics of marriage.
Overall, the lecture and screening constituted a rigorous and intellectually stimulating event within the Academic Dialogue Series, successfully bridging literary history, feminist critique, and popular cinema, while reaffirming the Research Committee, CDOE’s commitment to sustained scholarly dialogue and critical engagement.
