2-day history conference begins March 16

A two-day “The Daily Star-Heritage Chatigram History Conference” will begin at Theatre Institute Auditorium in Chittagong on March 16.
The conference, part of “The Daily Star Odommo Chattagram” festival scheduled to be held from March 30 to April 6, aims at disseminating the port city's history.
The conference will begin at 3:30pm on March 16 with a welcome speech by Mahfuz Anam, Editor and Publisher of The Daily Star.
It will be followed by “The Daily Star-Abdul Karim Sahityavisharad Lecture” by Prof Ranabir Chakravarti of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
He will then present a keynote paper on Chittagong and the Bay of Bengal.
Dr Shamsul Hossain, moderating the day's session, will present a PowerPoint presentation on Andarkilla area at 5:15pm.
A cultural programme will be staged by “Raktakarabi” at 6:00pm as The Daily Star's tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary.
Chittagong University Vice Chancellor Anwarul Azim Arif will be in the chair with AK Khan Foundation Vice Chairman Salahuddin Kasem Khan as special guest.
The second day of the conference, titled “Pre-historic and pre-mediaeval Chittagong”, comprises three sessions and will begin at 10:00am.
Chaired by Prof Ranabir Chakravarti, the first session will witness presentations on research papers by a number of noted academics.
They include Prof Jayanta Sinha Roy, Department of Archaeology, Jahangirnagar University; Shariful Islam, assistant keeper of Bangladesh National Museum; Associate Prof Suchandra Paul of Ancient Indian History and Culture, Calcutta University, India; and Shahnaz Husne Jahan, Department of General Education, University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh.
The second session, “Mediaeval Chittagong”, to be chaired by Premier University Vice Chancellor Prof Anupam Sen, will start at 2:00pm with some more research paper presentations.
The academics are Associate Prof Supta Sinha of Islamic History and Culture, Calcutta University, India; Prof Mohammed Ali Chowdhury and Prof Showkat Ara Begum of Department of History, Chittagong University; and Dr Shamsul Hossain, retired deputy curator of Chittagong University Museum.
The third session, “Chittagong in the Colonial and Bangladesh Period”, will start at 4:00pm with Prof Mofakkharul Islam of Dhaka University in the chair.
The keynote papers in this session will be presented by Associate Prof Golam Mustafa of Department of Bengali, Chittagong University; Assistant Prof Mahbubul Huq of Department of History, Chittagong University; and journalist Shamsul Huq of the daily Prothom Alo.
A cultural programme will follow through paying tributes to National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.