JOIN USWith a line-up packed with invigorating activities and discussions, Lady Shri Ram College’s annual academic festival Juxtapose 2014 was huge hit amongst students this year.
“Spread over two days, 27 and 28 September, this event saw a huge footfall of students from different colleges of Delhi University and other universities in the city”, says Alankrita Anand, a member of the organising team of Juxtapose 2014.
The theme for this year’s event was ‘Government Surveillance versus Individual Privacy’. It was designed as a forum where the burning issues of the day could be discussed and debated, giving the students an opportunity to interact with experts and arrive at more nuanced debates.
Comprising seven events in all, four on-ground ones and three online ones, the event kept the student crowd intellectually engaged. Panorama- the photography competition, Marcador- The Book Analysis and V-Campaign- the media campaign competition were online events that were open to all college students across India.
The on-ground events included two panel discussions, one inaugural discussion on 27 September on 'Mobile Phones and the Contours of Citizen Journalism', the panelists for which were Ms Sevanti Ninan (The Hoot), Preethi Herman (change.org) and Megha Mmgain (CNN-IBN) and the Media Congress on the 28 September where the question of surveillance versus privacy was looked into by panelists Dr Usha Ramanathan, Pavan Duggal, Shalini Singh, Dr Govind (NIXI) and Dr Vibodh Parthasarathi. Being the most awaited event year after year, the two and a half hour long panel discussion, the Media Congress was the highlight of the festival.
The other events included a debate on the motion ‘In this age of increased government surveillance, is privacy a luxury we cannot afford?’ that was adjudged by the professor Chinmayi Arun of National Law University, Delhi (NLU-D). The finale saw an engaging tussle of minds in the media quiz which had 40 teams from Delhi competing against one another. Kunal Savarkar from Quizcraft, was the quizmaster for it. Facilitating interactions and exchange of ideas across universities, Juxtapose marked its end this year with the release of the department’s journal, Counter Talk.