Azfar Hussain

Dr Azfar Hussain is director of the graduate programme in social innovation and professor of integrative/interdisciplinary studies at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, US. He is also summer distinguished professor of English and Humanities at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) and vice-president of US-based Global Center for Advanced Studies.

Of poetry, philosophy, politics, and praxis

When we cease to have rhythm, we are dead. And we cease to have poetry, we are spiritually dead, one way or another.

1m ago

Of place and places: Perspectives, positions, and propositions

To speak of place is to speak of the topical, the toponymical, and the topographical.

2m ago

Our leading socialist intellectual and our teacher

There is far more to be said about Serajul Islam Choudhury's significance as an intellectual and literary-cultural critic.

10m ago

Serajul Islam Choudhury: Our foremost intellectual and writer in Bangladesh

Today – June 23 – marks the 87th birthday of Serajul Islam Choudhury.

1y ago

Kazi Nazrul Islam and “World Literature”: Some Questions and Concerns

Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) has been customarily characterized as a rebel poet, particularly, if not exclusively, because of his 1922 poem called “Bidrohi” (the Rebel)—a poem that fiercely stages his political, linguistic, even metrical rebellion all at once.

1y ago

Shakespeare—Our Contemporary in the Time of Coronavirus?

The question was already raised by some: Did Shakespeare write mainly for children? So-called "pop" Shakespeare criticism answered that question in the affirmative. 

2y ago

More than a pastoral poet

Today—March 14—marks the 46th death anniversary of Jasim Uddin (1903-1976). Popularly called “palli kabi” (folk poet), Jasim Uddin is also considered a major Bangla poet.

2y ago

Our Language Movement: Moments, Momentum, Milieu

Our Bhasha Andolan—the Language Movement—was undoubtedly a major event in our political history.

2y ago
November 17, 2021
November 17, 2021

Our foremost peasant leader and revolutionary

He was described as an epic hero. His life was intimately involved in the land, labour and language of the poor peasant.

October 17, 2021
October 17, 2021

Fakir Lalon Shah: Love, life and liberation

One cannot decisively introduce—much less sum up—the life and work of Fakir Lalon Shah (c. 1772-1890).

August 29, 2021
August 29, 2021

Kazi Nazrul Islam: Poetry, Politics, Praxis

The only major Bengali poet to have come from the rural proletariat and the first one to have raised—in public—the demand for the total independence of colonial India in 1922, Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) enacts insurrectionary ruptures and breaks with certain old traditions in Bengali poetry while inaugurating new ones.

January 23, 2021
January 23, 2021

Kashinath Roy: A teacher, poet and mentor of extraordinary stature

My teacher Professor Kashinath Roy (1947—2021)—poet, short story writer, essayist—died on January 17, at 74. Or did he die?

December 19, 2020
December 19, 2020

Badruddin Umar: Our leading Marxist revolutionary

December 20 marks the 89th birthday of Badruddin Umar.

December 5, 2020
December 5, 2020

Remembering and Rereading Rokeya: Patriarchy, Politics, and Praxis

December 09 marks both the birth and death anniversaries of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932). The Rokeya Day in Bangladesh also falls on December 09. Indeed,

November 7, 2020
November 7, 2020

Fakir Lalon Shah: Subjects, Sites, and Signs

Fakir Lalon Shah—who orally composed thousands of songs in Bengali —died on October 17, 1890—on Kartik 01, 1297 (the Bengali year).

September 19, 2020
September 19, 2020

Mathematics and Poetry: Some Impressions

I think I’ve always loved mathematics in my own ways.

May 30, 2020
May 30, 2020

Nazrul’s Nonfiction Prose and the Question of Human Emancipation

Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976)—one of the greatest Bengali poets—has by now been fully assimilated into the literary canon and even into public discourse in Bangladesh.

January 18, 2020
January 18, 2020

Some Issues in Medieval Bangla Literature: Baru Chandidas and Vidyapati

It is undoubtedly a challenging task to characterize the world of medieval Bangla literature, given its rich diversity and staggering magnitude.

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