Good day, Anchal Meena. 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?

AM.

Could you elaborate briefly on your professional journey within academia?

Right. I'm Doctor Anchal Meena. Recently I completed my PhD from IIT Turkey. The topic of my thesis is writing resistance, memory, identity and trauma in select Roma narratives. So I deal with marginalized people, Roma tribe particularly in in taking in with memory studies and identity studies post colonial discourses. In the texts which are written by them, so I deal with.

Uh, connective memory when the people were persecuted, Roma people were persecuted in the Holocaust and even before that they were, uh, discriminated against. And they're still discriminated against in other ways. There are stereotypes against them, which is still continued in the media, which is still continued in the structure, systemic.

Influences in education, in work, in jobs and in other related scenarios. They, although they, they are SN they are, they have been forced to assimilate at the mainstream society, but they have not been able to do so because of some serious systemic indifferences. So my work is on that. And in academia I particularly want to work on marginalized people.

And, and right now I'm trying to do so in the South Asian types because Roma people are, they have gone from India to Europe. So they are basically now settled in Europe, about 12 million Roma settled in Europe. So but now I want to do continue my studies within this drama and memory studies in the context of South Asian texts, in the context of Indian texts and in the context of.

Her studies as well.

I have published 3 peoples till now. One of them is in scope as it takes journal.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing that, Professor Meena.

Thanks.

Professor Meena, let us proceed with evaluating your qualifications and teaching approach for the English Professor role. Let us begin with the first area of skill mastery: Digital Humanities. Can you share your understanding of Digital Humanities and describe any specific ways you have incorporated this field into your academic or research work?

OK.

Uh, digital humanities is extremely important in today's world to study the digital archives the because everything is digital now. AI is part of our life. AI is generative. We now have generative AI, which I'm speaking to right now. So it's very important part is real life is part of our life, very part of our life. And so digital humanities in itself become a plot important.

Digital TV is important and to study and analyze that is important and is imperative. Hence digital and humanities become an important stream.

To store everything, to archive everything, which we have.

The coming days in humanities, but.

I particularly have not worked on this yet but I have gone through archives so in case of Roma only. So I have gone through this digital archive on many European platforms to format study. So that's the only thing which I have incorporated till now in digital humanities.

Understood, Professor Meena. So far, your main interaction with Digital Humanities seems to involve engaging with digital archives, particularly for European platforms. Would you be able to elaborate briefly on how these archives supported your research, and what insights or methodologies you applied during this process?

OK, So they were important to study the folklore which are not present anywhere in the form of paperback that they are, they are stored somewhere in digital libraries. They were stored in fact in different European languages and to translate them to English. For me it was important part which was also available on those archives and I particularly.

Went through the, uh, Internet archive and then there is this area website, uh, about, about Roma and two others as well for folklore, for aroma folklore, which are, which were about 150 folklores, 4/4, uh, stories, folk tales about the Roma people, uh, in that way and the methodology applied and sorry, the other thing. What did you ask methodology and.

I asked about the insights or methodologies you applied during this process. Could you reflect on the specific methods or analytical frameworks you employed to study and interpret these digitally archived Roma folklores?

OK, so I studied them the archival methodology, I studied them in ethnographic sense, I studied them in applied the archival framework. But that was not my main area. Of course, it was only for one paper. Digital humanities was not my core area, so I did not delve deep into that in my PhD.

Thank you for clarifying, Professor. I appreciate the detailed response—it provides a clear view of your experience with Digital Humanities, even if it was not the core of your work. Let us move forward to the next area: Commonwealth Literature. Could you discuss your familiarity with Commonwealth Literature and provide an example of how you have engaged with this field, either in your academic research or teaching?

Common Mills literature is uh, absolutely part of every, uh, Indian university during masters. So we all go through that at some point in our academic life. So for calling with literature, especially for the countries, the Commonwealth countries become more important for us because from the beginning we have been, we have been studying literature through the English lens, through the lens of the British people.

And then buy and buy, we go through the world literature and finally we come to the Commonwealth literature, which is the literature written by the Commonwealth countries, the countries which were part of the British strategy. And this term Commonwealth literature was used by Salman Rushdie to group these countries. So these are the works. Written by writers born in these countries.

And which give us perspective from the point of view of the colonized people, which is which becomes very, very important in understanding their lives and which also is very important from the view or from the.

Perspective that.

Earlier, all the literature was written by the.

That the east was seen with the length of the West the east was seen with the lengths the oriental this they were seen with the lens of the Anglican version, but this was for the first time when common belt literature arose that the.

People, the colonized people, they could tell us about their miseries in the colonized world.

Thank you.

Professor, you have provided a thorough overview of Commonwealth Literature and its significance. Now, could you share a particular instance, either in your teaching or research, where you engaged with a specific Commonwealth text to explore these themes of colonial perspective and postcolonial identity?

Right.

There is this one particular UH study in the syllabus uh, which is by uh.

But I I just wanted to share this one particular incident in which the characters Mr. I see you.

'Cause I can't take a moment please.

Thank you.

Of course, Professor. Take your time.

You're welcome, Professor. Let me know when you're ready to continue.

House of Mr. Biswas is one of them and Salman Rushdie is my children.

They form syllabus of many many universities.

So I, uh, particularly like this, uh.

The House of Mr. Biswas novel.

A lot nightballs works and then.

Hello.

Hello.

Connection is breaking or what?

Oh, OK, OK, alright.

Right.

Please, go ahead when you're ready. Feel free to discuss your engagement with *A House for Mr. Biswas* or any other relevant works.

OK, so in house for Mr. Biswas, uh, written by VS Naipaul.

Yes, please go on. I’m listening.

Uh, I feel like the central team, uh, in that novel is alienation, which many of the.

Uh, subjects of Commonwealth countries felt the theme of alienation not aligning with the and and then living in this space of liminality and in betweenness, which has been elaborated later on by Bhabha. So the main character, the protagonist, Mr. Biswas, he feels alienated.

Because.

The work as a lonely child and who lived in isolation and here later on was forced on to merge his identities with others, but which he could not and ultimately this, there's this this sense of alienation. It motivates him to search for a.

House symbolizing an effort to find and create his own identity. So the search for our own identity, this search for our own Ness, is common in the Commonwealth literature, which has been established by VS Naipaul in this novel as well.

Thank you, Professor, for the insightful analysis. Your interpretation of alienation and the search for identity in *A House for Mr. Biswas* highlights a nuanced understanding of Commonwealth themes. Let us now proceed to the next area of evaluation: English Language Teaching. Can you share your approach or methodology for teaching the English language, particularly to non-native speakers?

Right. Well, I have uh, thought actually ELT and subjects and soft skills and uh, uh, English language technical communication at IITR during my PhD as a teaching assistant for four years, I have taught that course. So especially in North India, Northam, part of India, English, uh, is sometimes second or third language.

If you people coming from convent school, they are good with English, they do not have problem. But majority of the people come especially in technical institutes, they have problem with English. That be it accuracy, be it fluency, be it confidence, all three aspects.

And people there.

So I feel and sometimes actually I have seen and observed that fluency creates accuracy. When people are confident, the learners are confident and will speak just because of their confidence they are speaking fluently. They.

Actually show them and people and perceive them that they are very good at English. They can do their work and and English it's imperative to.

Listen, to listen, to be able to speak and to write in English for the people coming from technical backgrounds, because how else would they? It is important for their employability, it's important for their work, for their real life situations which they will face in the companies.

For communication, so for English language teaching my methodology is to.

To make them confident enough to speak everything and anything, to provide them this that they this framework of structure, that they should have this structure framing in their mind. Even if this speaking is not planned but spontaneous, they should be able to frame the answer in the.

So what and now what? Like 3 things. So if you could frame your thoughts in the the structures or the other structures like that, you would be able to answer your to, you would be able to organize your thoughts and then proceed with the answer. So I focus on two things. Most importantly to build up the confidence and to organize and present their thoughts in the these frameworks to make it little better and easier for them.

The the framework like like what? OK.

To speak.

And to write English.

Thank you, Professor, for sharing your structured and thoughtful approach to English Language Teaching. Your focus on building confidence and organizing spontaneous thoughts into frameworks is both practical and impactful, especially for non-native speakers. Moving on, let’s discuss your ability to teach both theory and laboratory courses. Could you provide an example of courses you’ve taught that required balancing theoretical concepts and practical/laboratory components? How did you approach this?

OK, uh, can you, uh, ask it more clearly the question? For example, the theoretical part and the practical part you are, for example, let's say theoretically, if I'm teaching them grammar, which is, which consists of part of ELT, but I'm teaching them grammar and but I won't teach grammar as a whole course in itself. Rather, I would focus on the parts of grammar which are required.

In real life practical approach which are required in applicability for example.

If they are writing the reports, they need to write the reports and the formal writing. So in the formal writing, the focus is.

Focus Attention is given to the fact that if it is the the action should be important and not the doer of the action. So we use passive voice.

Instead of active voice. Now they know the why why this active voice, passive voice is important for them. So I would teach them the.

This active voice passive voice section from grammar and its applicability in the form of writing reports and writing.

Other technical things which they the documentation thing.

When they apply this structure of passive, uh, watch and they realize and they learn that its applicability is in the form of writing report in passive words because we are focusing on the action, not the tour of the action. And hence they understand it and hence they incorporate it in the practical life as well.

Understood, Professor. You’ve provided a clear example of integrating theoretical concepts like grammar with their practical application, such as report writing. This approach reflects a strong alignment between theory and real-world utility. Next, let’s explore your experience in student evaluation and exam duties. Could you describe how you have handled responsibilities such as assessments or grading criteria in your teaching roles?

So I always focus on formative assessments in my class even if they are not part of the course, because by the time the summative assessment and the year end exams or the semester end exams happen, the student is already on the verge of losing it. So rather than that, I would focus always on the formative assessment on the in between.

Analysis of the student and making her better so for that the class activities, the class assessment, the short writing pieces, the short test, the short oral exams, the short speech they are always part of my assessment and I also believe that there are some a bit of empathy on from the side of teachers required in the classes where we.

Trying to make our learners to We are not focusing on the hard skills in the community, in the communication class, we are focusing. We are, we are trying to make the student learn a lot, but then produce a lot as well. To be able to speak up, to be able to tell us what whatever he or she is thinking might be thinking. The plan.

At the page, the towards the ideas, everything. So I think sometimes little empathy from the side of teacher is required in such classes. So during the assessment, if I feel that maybe half mark extra can boost up the confidence of this student, I would not shy away from it in the small, obviously not in the final exam, but in between the.

Glasses in between if if in any way I could encourage the student to speak more, to write more, and to do more. Basically in the communication classes. In the ELT classes I would try to do that to boost their confidence, to encourage them to do better and formative assessment. Even if they are not prescribed, they always are part of my classes.

Thank you, Professor, for providing a comprehensive perspective on your student evaluation approach. Your emphasis on formative assessments, empathy, and confidence-building reflects a student-centered methodology, particularly suited for effective communication and ELT courses. Now, let us move on to discuss your ability to guide student projects and research. Could you describe any experiences you have had mentoring students in this capacity?

I have, uh, recently started, uh, my career. I'm a new PSD, so I have not had this, uh, uh, yeah. This, uh, uh, this opportunity of actually delving into.

Taking the PhD students or something. But yes I have mentored mastered master students informally capacity to mentor them.

This this poster making and project on solar appliances and ITR solar flights and solar appliances their significance? There was and then after that there was the report writing.

On there. So there was this project on.

So I made the there was this group assigned to me. So I need the group to do the research to. So when they were doing the the research I need them to.

Look at the abstracts and take information out of it. And I made them to read research papers, to make accurate reports, to do everything required in our research. Obviously on a small scale, it was not a PSD thing. So I made them to do everything and write the report, poster, project, everything.

Thank you, Professor. Your experience mentoring Master’s students and guiding them through research, report writing, and project development demonstrates a proactive and supportive approach to student guidance. Now, let's focus on your communication skills and structured teaching approach. How do you ensure clarity and engagement when delivering complex topics to students or audiences unfamiliar with the subject?

Subject become I always make sure they are comfortable with the subject, with the environment, with the topic. And then I proceed by and by on the topic and it's just scaffolded approach like first this and this and this and then from simpler things to com complex whole.

So my approach is always to scaffold the. Scaffolding is my major major thing in. While teaching, I break the complex topics and complex structures into the simpler ones. I first make the learners familiar with the.

Thank you, Professor. Your explanation of scaffolding demonstrates a thoughtful and systematic teaching approach, ensuring that students grasp foundational concepts before addressing more complex ones. Let's move forward to your research contributions. Could you highlight any significant research publications or projects, particularly those in reputed journals, that align with the responsibilities of this role?

Our scheduled time for the interview is now up. Before we conclude, do you have any questions related to the role or the company?

Uh, no. Thank you so much.

Yes, please.

If you're ready to conclude the interview, please confirm, and I’ll formalize the process. Would you like me to proceed?