HYDERABAD: We are seeing a lot of discussions around the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, but experts are also talking about its aftermath. That’s how ‘Imagining the Post-Coronavirus World’ a virtual international conference organised by Auro University, Surat (India) partnering with The University of Hyderabad took place.
The two-day virtual international conference discussed ways to re-imagine a new world, a new future. Pramod K Nayar, Dept of English, the UoH, in his introductory remarks proposed a few of the themes that could serve as points of departure two ways or modalities of imagining such a world: the apocalyptic, and the transformational/redemptive, with the touches of “cruel optimism” tinging the latter.
It hosted over 15 speakers representing multiple disciplines from from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Scotland, India, the UK, France, Norway and US. Among delegates were Greta Gaard (Wisconsin-River Falls), Tabish Khair (Aarhus), Tereza Kuldova (Oslo Metropolitan) Rebecca Duncan (Linnaeus), Bashabi Fraser (Edinburgh Napier). Representing other fields were journalists and Srinivas Rao (Sahitya Akademi) and Shashi Tharoor. It covered a range of themes: environment, education, surveillance, etc.