Good day, Smrithi M Venugopal. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

I'll start with my qualifications. I have a I am a Bachelor's of Arts and my specialization was English and I did my bachelors at Saint Joseph's College, David Calicut. I followed up my bachelors with a Masters in English and this was from the University of Hyderabad.

And prior to that I had my net GRF cleared. So with the JRF fellowship, I joined my PhD program at the University of Calicut and that was in the year 2017 December, and I had my PhD awarded in 2024 July.

Right after, you know. Well, yeah, over time, I was also working as a guest lecturer in a government College in Kerala, in northern Kerala.

And by the end of December 2025, sorry 2024, I got I had applied to a deemed to be university in Kerala and I got in. And in 2025 January, I joined Chinmaya Vishwavidhya deemed to be university at Nakulam, Kerala. And currently I'm working as an assistant professor of English in the Institute of Science and Technology at Chinmaya Vishavithya Peeth. So this has been my.

Academic journey and over the tenure of my PhD and after, I've been attending multiple conferences and have been presenting papers on various areas including Marxism, ecological criticism, trauma theory and adaptations. Have also been working on medical humanities and over the course of my PhD I've been able to publish.

Seven works.

Uh, out of which five, uh, uh, came published in international journals, journals, while uh, two of them, uh, came published and edited books. Umm yeah. And.

Over the period, I also have this opportunity to be a peer reviewer for Springer and I have done.

One peer review.

For the, you know, for the Medical Humanities Journal by Springer. And I also have international experience dealing with students from across the world. You know, these were school and college.

Students from the United States, from Japan and Singapore, so I had been collaborating with.

With the company in Kuching, Ernakulam again and the this company was kind of, you know, it's more like a tutoring company which gave.

Umm, training programs to students, uh, overseas for their competitive examinations in their own country. So I have been training students for umm, International Baccalaureate, advanced Placements and also the scholastic assessment tests with the United States, the United States. So this is pretty much what I've been doing umm, in terms of, you know, my. You know, my own study and my research and the kind of work that I've been doing.

Associated with English and.

I uh, right after joining uh, Chinmaya Vishwavidya appeared into 2025. I've attended UH-3 faculty development programs, out of which one was umm, uh, centered on.

The theme of Indian knowledge systems and uh, the meaningful inter interaction or rather the meaningful integration of Indian knowledge systems in contemporary knowledge system. And I've also attended the AICT universal human values FTP and UMM, I have been promoted in level 1 and I'm looking forward to a level 2 FDP really soon and. I've also done an inter disciplinary, uh, humanities.

FDP that was hosted by VIP Andhra Pradesh Amravati. So this is pretty much what I've got to say with regard to my studies, my research, the work that I'm doing and also the kind of faculty development programs that I've been part of.

Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. Let us now proceed with the evaluation of your specific skills and qualifications for the role. I'll begin by verifying certain key competencies relevant to the position. Starting with your experience, can you explain how you integrate digital tools or technologies in the field of Digital Humanities within your teaching or research?

I would say that pretty much all the resources that I have relied on as part of my research way digital humanities based I have.

Very few of my texts that I was going through where heartbound, you know, conventional textbooks. I relied a lot on digital platforms, ebooks.

Also Internet archives and much of all the materials that I have gone through.

That has been a wonderful experience and I think that's a stark difference with, you know, that that is a stark difference in the way people are learning and doing.

Uh, way accessed remotely from different universities across the world, so.

Such a trait compared to water research in PhD work was back in the olden times. So I would say all the texts that I relied on as part of my research there were digital. They were from various digital humanities databases that I could get hold of and as a teacher myself. I do create materials online. Much of the work is no longer on pen and paper. We have digital platforms.

There's a lot of Google classrooms being made use of. Much of the materials have been transformed in.

The PDFs. So I guess this is what uh, we are looking forward to and this is the kind of, uh, reality that everybody has to become accustomed to despite, uh, belonging to humanities and you know, being so obsessed with books in hardbound heart literature. So this is something that, you know, I can point out from my personal perspective, it is important that.

Everything that we are so accustomed to in a hardbound format.

Has to be converted into a digital format for.

Their long life in the 1st place and also for the ease of accessibility by researchers and students and teachers and everybody who's enthusiastic and you know, who's interested in literature and various other related. You know, corpus of knowledge. So digital humanities is very much an important aspect and it is really something that everybody should be looking forward.

To an embracing because technology is something that we cannot neglect. Technology is something that we cannot sideline anymore. It is in a way encroached in every possible domain of human existence. So I believe it is important that everybody integrates that into our own lives and myself as a teacher as well as a researcher. This is something that I've already been doing and will continue be continue to, you know, do so in the. Years to come as well.

Yeah. Thank you.

Next, let us discuss Commonwealth Literature. How do you approach teaching this area, considering its cultural and historical diversity?

Considering Commonwealth literature, I have really been exposed to literature from across the world, but as part of my.

You know, as part of my bachelors program as well as my masters program, I've also been in a way exposed to literature from the Commonwealth, India to be a great contributor. You know, so to cite an example.

So commonly, health literature is an essential part of literature, which is gaining more visibility and more, you know, acceptance from people across the world because mainstream literature has always been Western. The idea of a mainstream literature was in itself a Western idea where the canonical authors from the West, you know, that was basically what we thought about. These are the images that first comes to our mind whenever we think of literature.

So Commonwealth literature is definitely an integral aspect or integral domain of literature which needs to be incorporated, which needs to be given more attention, and very positively we are actually.

Or rather, this particular field of literature is definitely gaining more attention and gaining more acceptance in the years to come. Yeah, you know, it will gain more acceptance in the years to come. And it is really positive that it is becoming more and more visible in the.

Uh, present times as well. So, uh, when it comes to Commonwealth literature, literature from Southeast Asia has been a very important, uh, you know, uh, they have been a great, uh, contributor to the copies of knowledge of Commonwealth Literature, so.

Equally important would be the literature from.

And so there has been, you know, even South African literature, Latin American literature. So these are all things that we myself as a student has been accustomed to and made familiar at different points of my academic journey. And I believe this is really important that we take that into consideration and we see universities coming up with a greater number of courses that are centered on Commonwealth literature, so.

You know, the Indian subcontinent.

Is important, I guess, that we give it more impetus and more support and more visibility compared to, you know, the the very Western idea of knowledge and western idea of literature that people have been conditioned to learn and research on.

Yeah, that's all. Thank you.

Thank you, Professor. Let us now turn to the topic of English Language Teaching. How do you structure your approach to teaching English language learners, particularly in a multicultural or diverse classroom setting?

English language teaching, uh, is kind of a challenging job for a teacher, especially if we're dealing with a multicultural classroom. And I say, I would say that, uh, I do have an experience teaching a multi-clad, multi cultural, umm, group of students myself because I teach at a university where we have students from across India.

Umm majority of the students are from Kerala.

Uh, we have a, a considerable number of students from, uh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and Tamil Nadu and, uh, few students from, uh, north of India, including, uh, Rajasthan and Punjab. And so I would say my, as a student myself, I have been accustomed, sorry, as a teacher, uh, I am kind of used to deal or kind of used to, or, you know, I'm, I'm. I have the experience of dealing with students from different cultures.

And also as a student myself, I studied in a multicultural classroom during my Master of Arts program at the University of Hyderabad. We have students from across the world, so we have seen how English has been taught in the universities and that is pretty much what I try to integrate in my.

Current job, the present work that I am engaged in right now. So teaching English is definitely a challenging aspect because in the first place.

Uh, it depends on where a particular student stands in terms of the long language competence. Not every student in a class has the same language competence. Uh, some students are well versed in English, some others understand English, you know, in a, in a fashion that is not, uh, exceptional nor to, uh, you know, poor or average. And we also can possibly have really average students and.

Students who are below average in a classroom, so these things can happen. So a singular approach to teaching English to a multicultural classroom will never be. A fruitful attempt in the 1st place because a singular content delivered to in a homogeneous fashion to a singular class is never going to hit the right code in any fashion. So I think more of an individualistic approach is what we need.

Uh, when it comes to English language teaching, because it is important that we understand and, uh, evaluate where each of the students in a particular class stands in what level do they have their competence in and speaking about English language teaching. Everybody is kind of aware of the LSRW areas that, uh, we rely on, especially when we teach and learn English. So where in terms of listening and where in terms of speaking and where in terms of reading and where in terms of writing do each of the students in?

Room stand is where each, uh, teacher or uh, you know, a professor in a college is supposed to be looking at and uh, every content has to be delivered in such a fashion that, uh, the intermediate students get what they require, the basic level or the average level students get what they require. And also the advanced level students would have to give be given. Umm, the kind of learning and, you know, they have to be given, uh, the kind of materials, the kind of.

Exposure that advanced students would require. So it would be totally pointless if we kind of administer an advanced learning material to an average student who can barely listen, who can barely understand, and who can barely speak. So identifying the skill set, identifying the competence of a student is what is most important and delivering concepts, delivering lectures and delivering materials based on. The competence level of the student is what I believe is the right approach to teaching language.

Uh, any language for that matters is English, uh, in particular because, umm, especially in a country like India with, uh, different, uh, you know, different cultures, people coming from different States and English as a language is not administered in the same fashion in all the, in all the states in India. So definitely students coming from different backgrounds are very likely to have. A difference in their competency. Even students coming from within a single state can have different competency levels and it depends on, you know, with school.

The student comes from which area the student comes from the social class, uh, you know, the economic status. So it's got to do a lot with how much exposure and how much privilege that each student enjoys. So I, I would, I would suggest that or rather, you know, I would go with the opinion that a singular approach to teaching a multi multicultural kind of a classroom will never be the right method.

To.

On you know, On the contrary, what we have to do is identify the competency of each student, break them into groups and the most immediate and the most easy groups could be the basic or the beginner and followed by the intermediate and the advance and then deliver them materials, deliver them concepts, deliver them lectures based on their individual group.

Deliver English language and.

Uh, competency. So this would be my approach at teaching English language teaching.

Thank you, Professor. That provides a thorough understanding of your approach. Let us now explore your ability to teach a combination of theory and laboratory courses in the context of English studies. Could you elaborate on how you balance these two components effectively?

Of course, yes.

So teaching theory generally happens in the classroom where, you know, we come prepared with theoretical lessons and we deliver them as lectures. We have digital resources that we provide the students with, and then there's a lot of discussion and deliberation. So this is pretty much what happens when it comes to theory. So we teach, we take things from the students, we have thorough discussions and based on the discussions.

We in a way, uh, would structure or customize the next day's lecture. So this is pretty much what I believe every teacher might be doing with regard to teaching theory. And when it comes to English as a subject, uh, and uh, laboratory courses as the domain, umm, the most important area that most English teachers deal with in a lab would be, uh, teaching phonetics. So that doesn't mean that this is an area that.

I particularly I'm interested in, you know, I am accustomed to so.

There are lab courses where phonetics is delivered to students listening skills. You know such courses based on listening where we play an audio to students and let them listen to the audio in its totality. And then we have a short series of quiz objective kinds of questions that the students have to deliver answer to.

So this a combination of linguistics, a combination of listening activity, a combination of, you know, analytical activities based on listening and also reading short seconds reading, you know, you know something that.

Content basically that shows up on the screen for less than 30 seconds and the student is supposed to read it in a in a.

Triple to the student, there are different levels to the pace and right after reading, we administer the student a couple of multiple choice questions based on the content and we see to what extent a student can manage answering the questions. So these are the kind of activities that I'm used to doing in the labs as part of the courses that I currently teach and it is. On one approach, a student is singularly analyzed.

Evaluated and helped by a single instructor and so. So this is pretty much what we do in English labs in the university that I currently work for, and phonetics and listening activities are what we generally administer to the students.

Understood, Professor. Moving forward, let's evaluate your experience with student evaluation duties. Could you describe how you have handled assignments, exams, and overall student performance assessments in your academic career?

Alright, uh, so.

With the little experience that I have, umm, there has been uh, more or less a uniform or homogeneous pattern in which assessments have been made in, uh, the institutions that I have worked for, umm, there, you know, students are basically assessed based on, uh, the internal assessment criteria and also the external assessment criteria. So in terms of inter intern internal assessment, we have a couple of. Factors that we take into consideration.

Starting with a couple of tests, examinations that the student is expected to write, you know, which are module based. So we have something like a continuous internal assessment that is done twice a year during the tenure of that particular year. Sorry, twice a semester. I'm really sorry about that. Twice a semester. SO2 tests are being administered every semester followed, you know, following up.

The in addition to the test, we also have.

Umm, an assignment, uh, a seminar component and also a class performance, uh, component assessments generally. So tests are basically.

Descriptive examinations where we have questions based on Bloom's taxonomy and you know both the institutions that I have worked for, they had their own set templates on the setting up of a question question paper. So everything was Bloom's Taxonomy based. It was based on the CUS and OPE is of the particular course in the program that a student is.

Involved in. So apart from the test then we also have the seminar component where.

Umm, students used to do the presentations and assessments were done based on the content of their daily, you know, the content of the seminar, the, uh, the, uh, the nature of their delivery, you know, in terms of their confidence in, in terms of the points and how it was organized and also the way in which they were interacting with your fellow students. You know, the especially.

The fashion and the ability or the competency with which they were answering the fellow students questions.

So these were all components which made it to the internal assessment of a student. So pretty much exams, seminars, assignments and also some score has been awarded for class performance where basically a student's performance throughout the whole semester for a particular course is evaluated based on the kind of participation that he has in a class, the kind of.

Responses and the interaction that he has so and also the.

The interest that a student takes in a way shows and exhibits in a particular course. These are all parts of the internal assessment, which is further, you know, followed up with an external evaluation component, which basically is a university exam, uh, that is description based. And there are no other elements other than examination in the external evaluation pattern. So taken together, this is how we evaluate a student for a particular course in a particular semester. So this is the method that I am.

Two, and this is something that I've been doing in about the institutions that I've worked for so far.

Thank you, Professor. Let’s now discuss your ability to guide student projects and research. Could you share an example of how you have mentored a student, particularly in handling a complex topic?

Alright, so.

Go to umm, handling projects. Umm, I have the experience of uh, handling umm, undergraduate projects. Uh, in the previous college that I worked for where as part of the requirements for the undergraduate degree, students were expected to come up with a topic and write a project based on that. So, umm I do have the experience of mentoring 4 different students on four different areas.

Where if the student does not really have an idea to start with, I give the students a list of potential areas that could be worked on. And if a student is kind of interested in a particular area, the student, you know, hooks onto that particular topic. And then we start developing A thesis statement. You know, it's basically a research question that we look forward to in the first phase of the project work. So once we have successfully identified research question.

And umm, uh, in the 1st place we have a brainstorming session.

We start organizing, or rather we start, uh, uh, the data, meaning, uh, part of it, you know, we come, uh, we search for resources that are in support of, uh, or rather, you know, we search for.

The theory, the literature review so we read a lot this two basically the students read a lot. They come up with those ideas out of which and I help them to sort out information you know to in a way retain information that is essential and discard.

Uh, information that is not directly connected to the, these statements that we were proposing. And thereafter we proceed to identification of, uh, the important areas, uh, that has to be discussed in the chapters. And finally, once the whole, uh, thing, you know, comes to a place, we work on the conclusion and that is how a project is finalized and, you know, made ready. So this has been something that this is how it has been done with the.

His students that I've worked for. So we identify the area, followed up by the question and then comes the research, the thesis statement for the research and students start to write.

We identify what is essential and what is not. Then we finally come up with a whole version of the argument presented with the substantiating details that are in support of the argument, while also not ruling out the counter arguments. We.

Take that into consideration and also try to logically and sensibly counter the counter arguments as well. So this has been the structure of the mentoring programs that I've done with regard to research.

Projects that were done by the students so far.

Thank you, Professor. Moving on, could you outline your teaching methodology, particularly how you ensure communication clarity and a structured delivery for complex topics?

All right, so my teaching methodology is basically, uh, it begins with me doing the research, getting.

Very well versed with the topic that I'm going to deliver a lecture the next day. So I read a lot, I prepare, I make a digital resources based on that. I make handouts. I do you know, if time permits, I also try making some worksheets which would later be circulated online in the classroom. So every new topic, especially complex topics that I deal with every single topic.

I generally started off with a work or an activity that is assigned to the students so that I can spark some curiosity and some interest in the topic right before I actually deliver the the the topic in the class. So it's I start with a workshop, sorry, rather a worksheet or an assessment just to see where the students stand in terms of the topic and.

This and right after doing an activity like a quiz.

Or a group discussion, or a jam session. The students do feel a little more interested in inclined, knowing more about the complex idea that I'm going to present, which I follow up with lectures specifically.

Based on examples and anecdotes so that I can.

Uh, theory, criticism, concepts that I've dealt with so far, It has already, it was all, you know, it was always based on this approach where I administer an assessment test, which did not necessarily feel like a test to the student. So that was where I always began, followed up by, umm, you know, the actual lecture on the course. And then comes, uh, the.

Help that concept reach them in a better and easy fashion. So much of the literature.

Uh, you know, the digital format, uh, slides and materials that are administered to the students, followed up by, uh, a thorough discussion of the concept where I get to learn a lot of things from the student.