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CDE Talk Series (Shrwan edition)

On the last Friday of the month of Shrawan (Shrawan 26, 2080 VS), Prof. Dr. Anirudra Thapa gave a riveting talk entitled "Whiter Humanities" as a part of CDE Talk Series in Room no 31, i.e., the Seminar Hall of Department of Anthropology.  A scholar of the 19^th century American literature/culture, nationalism/ transnationalism, the Irish literature, and academic writing, Prof. Thapa started with Michel Foucault's antihumanism to hint at the fall of the ground on which the whole Western intellectual tradition, also known as (liberal) humanism, rested. Then he traced out the trajectory of this humanism right from Socrates to Christian humanism, Renaissance humanism, Enlightenment and the rise and rein of liberal humanism.  On the way, Prof. Thapa enthralled the audience (40 plus) with intriguing anecdotes and theoretical insights and interpretations. Finally, he, after completing a full circle, got back to Foucault to illustrate how this twenty five hundred year long humanism has collapsed. Not surprisingly, Humanities, as a distinct domain of academia, was based on this very humanism. With the collapse of this very ground (humanism), a question arises: Whither Humanities? Prof. Thapa argued that crisis in Humanities has more to do with the collapse of this ground rather than the absence of its utilitarian values, as claimed by many scholars. Now Humanities can no longer go on pretending as if nothing has happened. It is at the crossroads. Bringing insights from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Donna J. Haraway, and Rosie Braidottie, Prof. Thapa demonstrated how the academia has started responding to the collapse of this ground. Posthumanism is one of responses to it. Moreover, Humanities, as rhizomes, is attempting to respond to the realities of the world dominated by ever evolving capitalism artificial intelligence. Going beyond disciplinary boundaries, studies like food studies, architecture studies, and river studies are flourishing. According to Prof. Thapa, the Nepali scholars from English studies, too, design and offer courses as per these developing new realities. For example, he poignantly argued that as the AI (Artificial Intelligence) machines are evolving into AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), which are capable of learning to carry out intellectual tasks performed by human beings.  Against such backdrop, we need to design courses in such a way that we could teach these AGI machines the values like empathy and compassion.                                   

Following Prof. Thapa's 90 minute long talk, a vibrant Q & A session commenced. Prof. Ram Chandra Poudel, Prof. Dr. Dhruba Karki, Mr. Maheshwor Paudel, and Mr. Keshab Sigdel, among others, raised important issues regarding the talk as well as the topic in general. Finally, Prof. Dr. Jib Lal Sapkota, Chair of the programme, declared the closing of the Shrawan edition of the CDE Talk Series.