THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Golden jubilee celebrations of the Malayalam Department of the Kerala University (KU) will be inaugurated by Vice-Chancellor A Jayakrishnan on February 15. In connection with this, a Changampuzha memorial lecture by Dr Skaria Zacharia will be held.
The one-year-long celebrations will have seminars, workshops, cultural programmes, a World Malayalee Meet and so on. The seminars and workshops will focus on language, visual art, literature, folklore, cinema, translation and cultural studies.
Lectures in memory of Vallathol, Kumaranasan, Ulloor, G Sankara Kurup, Kesari Balakrishna Pillai, N Krishna Pillai, Vyloppilli and C V Raman Pillai will be held. A souvenir on the golden jubilee celebrations will also be released.
The Malayalam Department, that was first initiated by P K Narayana Pillai, has till now released over 30 research publications and published over 200 PhD theses. Besides, the 100th edition of the magazine ‘Bhasha Sahithi’, will be published soon.
The research work in the department was led by eminent people such as Deshamangalam Ramakrishnan, Puthussery Ramachandran, V S Sharma, T Bhaskaran, K Ramachandran Nair, P Raman, D Benjamin, N Mukundan, Valsala Baby, N R Gopinatha Pillai, Chemmanam Chacko, T Bhaskaran and P V Velayudhan Pillai, among others.
Syndicate members K L Vivekanandan and B S Jyothikumar will offer felicitations at the inaugural meet on Wednesday.