EWU arranges 5th Nehreen Khan Memorial Lecture by Prof Dr Dipesh Chakrabarty

East West University (EWU) organized the 5th Nahreen Khan Memorial Lecture programme in the Manzur Elahi Auditorium of EWU in Dhaka on Sunday. 

Dr Dipesh Chakrabarty, an eminent Indian historian and professor of history at the University of Chicago, US, was the keynote speaker on the occasion, reads a press release.  

In his paper titled "The planetary age in human history", Dr Chakrabarty focused on the differentiation between the globe and the planet. 

He said, the globe is human-centric, human-made, the planet is not made by humans, and humans are not central to its history. 

By planetary history, Prof. Chakrabarty means "the much longer history of the ways in which geological and biological processes have combined on this planet to help it sustain complex and multicellular forms of live for hundreds of millions of years". 

In his lecture, Professor Chakrabarty, argued that humans are part of the earth's system that they are breaking down, emphasizing the way the intensification of globalisation, and expansion of economic and extractive activities have created a crisis for humans and the planet itself. 

The speech concludes by the potential loss of biodiversity and the impact of humans as a geophysical force on the planet. 

The lecture was organised in memory of a former student of EWU, Nehreen Khan (late), the daughter of the late Dr Akbar Ali Khan, a former adviser to the caretaker government of Bangladesh.

Professor Dr Mohammed Farashuddin, chief adviser and founder VC of EWU, Professor Dr M M Shahidul Hassan, VC, Professor Dr Fakhrul Alam, former-pro VC, Air Cdre (retd) Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury, treasurer, of EWU also delivered their speech in the programme. 

A large number of students, faculty members, officers and staff of the university and some relatives of the late Nehreen Khan were also present on the occasion.