Hello. Hi.

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

OK so good evening, my name is Doctor Nathi Jha. I have done my PhD from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Patna wherein my thesis and primary research focused on the Indian indentured studies. I looked at the trauma aspect of migration. After submitting my thesis, I joined Golgotha's College of Engineering and Technology in August 2024 wherein.

Started my journey as Assistant professor of English. So in my 5 years of research, I also taught as teaching assistant subjects such as Technical Communication and Soft Skills to Btech, Mtech, MSE and PhD students. Along with it, while acting as Assistant Professor, I taught BTEC students as well as MCCA students subjects such as Technical Communication and Professional Communication. So that is about myself.

Thank you for your interest in the role of English Professor. Let's begin by discussing your qualifications and experiences in relation to the key aspects of this position. First, could you briefly summarize your expertise and experience in teaching English, particularly any focus you have on emerging areas or specializations within the field?

OK, so as I talked about my PhD journey, while I was acting as teaching assistant, I also got to teach at times as teaching assistant to my professor, certain subjects such as the ones that involved postcolonial literature and Commonwealth literature. Uh, an aspect about my research journey has been that I started from 2 novels that.

Actually have been written by those who migrated from India to US and to Denmark as a part of Commonwealth literature. I have also focused on certain other countries such as the Caribbean islands, Mauritius, Fiji and such places including British Guyana as well. Uh, when it comes to teaching, I have taught, uh, as I already uh, talked about, I have taught technical communication wherein I focused on communication now essentially.

Actually in my research I have.

Spend a few papers that talk about communication and forms of archival reading and oral literature as well. So to teach communication to people who are primarily not native speakers of English. It's an interesting aspect because therein you become comfortable with them in not assessing them as natives, but guiding them through empathy and understanding and being together with them in their.

And producing learning outcomes.

So while I.

Yeah. Can you please repeat the question?

Take your time. Go ahead.

How do you approach guiding students through research projects or papers?

OK, so as I was talking about my journey as assistant professor at Golgotha's college, I got the opportunity to teach students from uh, different UH classes and different UH batches. So I taught students from AIML AIDS and IT. So when these students were trying to, uh, prepare for certain projects that aimed to gain government grants.

I had the opportunity to work with a few of them, especially students from IT and AIDS as well, and I'm very proud and glad to say that I could help them in their presentation skills. I could help them in their communication skills. A particular thing that I always tell my students is that you always have the content, but the crux of language learning. In places such as India, still is.

That you cannot always be expected to have the optimal level of proficiency. What you can actually do is learn how to make use of language.

To, uh, you know, convey your strength, convey your projects with, uh, utmost confidence so that, uh, there can be good results. So I have had this opportunity of guiding certain students in their BTEC projects, uh, as I was working at an engineering college.

I didn't get the opportunity to guide them in their core subjects or in my area of specialization, but communication was one thing with which I could help them and establish a strong CV as well.

It seems your focus on helping students refine their communication skills—especially in presenting their projects and building strong CVs—demonstrates a practical and empathetic approach. Your emphasis on leveraging language as a tool for confidence and effective conveyance is commendable. Now, shifting to teaching theory and laboratory courses, how do you ensure students grasp theoretical concepts while also understanding their practical applications?

Non literary, non literature students. When I am teaching students from different backgrounds, it becomes essential that I talk to them in the concepts that they understand more. So if I'm talking to, let's say, mechanical students, I'll talk to them about how there are certain projects that are designed in a way to increase the tensile strength of steel as it has also been applied.

Alright, so thank you for the question when it comes to.

That places such as Tata Steel, on the other hand, when I'm talking about literature.

My specialization has been in migration and in I have used methods such as archival reading. I have used methodology of historical revisionism. In these aspects, I think I have always also looked forward to learning certain tools that can help me. Grasp these archives beyond their.

Uh, certain confusing terms as these archives are also pretty old and they come from the different countries that I talked about. So I essentially want to guide students towards these areas towards.

Towards establishing better understanding of migrants, I believe and as data also indicates, majority of us today are migrants. Some of us have migrated from villages to cities, some of us have migrated.

From, uh, once a day to another. And many of us have also migrated from one country to the other. Uh, even the students who are going to be a part of institutes have left behind their home and come to study at a place. And as migrants, they also need to have a, an understanding of intercultural, uh, communication, which will also help them while they're going to work at Mncs. So making them understand that literature is not just novel.

Literature is not just poetry or anything else, but it has a strong theoretical groundings where in research on let's say trauma is going to help them understand themselves while they're going through difficult situations or even in their research aspects such as. Collective. Collective theories of migration, of trauma, of material culture.

These aspects help them nurture themselves in a way that they can read beyond one country and also include a global aspect in their studies.

Your approach to integrating theoretical concepts with practical, relatable examples for diverse students—whether they’re in mechanical engineering or literary studies—is thoughtful and versatile. The emphasis on intercultural communication and drawing connections between literature and lived experiences, such as migration and trauma, reinforces the relevance of literature in broader contexts. Given your focus on cultivating understanding, could you share how you evaluate student progress and ensure the intended learning outcomes are met?

OK, so when we are looking at any curriculum, any syllabus, we always see that there are uh, outcomes and we, what we usually indulge in is outcome based learning. However, when we talk about language teaching or when we talk about literature teaching, we have to understand that there is a, a qualitative approach that must be there as well.

So when I am dealing with students, I want to act more as an observer so that in the later classes I can build tools, I can build aspects in my studies, in my classroom, teaching methods that can help the students. For instance, I can go.

Uh, help them, I can go and assess them using, uh, quiz. I can help them using different, uh, different presentations. I can help them using different resources, let's say from BBC, let's say from YouTube. These are all becoming important aspects. Students always rely a lot on digital tools that are available to them. They will always, uh, you know, uh, try to look at what is available to them.

And what is available on YouTube for them. So what I try to do in evaluation is not simply.

Design a question paper and deliver it to them. But I try to design such activities that can bring out in them the interest to learn more. So for my students of it, I did 1 task. I asked them to choose a movie of their choice and of their interest and to analyze the communication pattern in the movie. I asked them to think.

Think from their own ideas of communication, think that they're going to be the future workforce in this country, maybe even beyond that, they will be dealing with the global workforce as well. So what should be their, what should be their thoughts on these? So when the students write these things, I read them and I don't just go through them to learn how their language is, but also how their ideas are. And then on the basis of that.

I try to design certain activities such as uh, speaking to each other, uh, in the classroom, debating group discussions, umm, ideas such as uh, sharing their knowledge with each other in different fun activities. And I try to implement them and whatever the outcome is, I try to have an.

Approach that is not biased towards any of my students.

Your holistic approach to evaluation, which combines observation, creative assignments, and interactive methods like debates and group activities, demonstrates a strong commitment to fostering both intellectual and practical growth among your students. Encouraging them to engage critically while leveraging digital tools and designing relatable exercises such as analyzing communication in movies brings an innovative edge to your teaching methodology. Let’s now move to your experience in research. Could you elaborate on your research publications, particularly regarding their focus and how they align with this role?

So I have three journal publications that are out. Out of these, 32 are indexed in Scopus and one in SCI. Apart from that, I also have two book chapters, one of which has been published with Sprinter and there's a Scopus indexed. Along with that, I have two articles that I have, uh, submitted for revision recently and these articles have been sent to Q1 journals of Taylor and Francis and I am.

I'm working on another paper in which I am trying to understand how archival reading can be made more efficient. And in these research papers, if I talk about the first, the recent publication that was there, it got published in 2024 and it talked about the costumes of the migrating body, in which I have talked about the impact of clothings that have been prevalent in India onto the diasporic commun.

So I have talked about how because of colonization, essentially because of colonization, there was a dispersal of human population throughout. And these human populations along with their memory, they also carried food, they carried seeds with them, they carried clothing and different other materials, even jewelry designs. So there is a similarity between the clothes that are worn in India and Mauritius, India and Fiji.

Fiji and Guanajuana.

One different other places there are also languages that are there such as Guana, Hindi, Fiji, Hindi, Bhojpuri that is spoken in Mauritius. So these are the different aspects that I have discussed in my research. I have talked about how in one of my primary papers, the 1st paper that I had written, it talked about challenging absolute absoluteness and fixities in the constantly changing world. So where here I talked about migration.

The pattern of migration that has taken from taken place in India, whether it's inland migration or migration outside. From there on, I started to analyze oral history in my second paper From India to Mar Each day. So I have talked about how cultural texts have been used not just to preserve memory but also to provide strength to the populations who migrated to Mauritius.

And in the in the recent publication that I also talked about previously, again, I talked about the costumes, which essentially was supposed to focus only on saree and and dhoti, but it also started to include jewellery. It talked about the Gurney necklace that is there. And how when Indira Gandhi, she visited Mauritius, she also found a similar pattern how these countries despite having different.

Narratives have gone through one particular incident, have been a part of the Commonwealth despite it having many alternative meanings for them, and how these aspects have altered their histories forever, how population has been scattered all over the world and how people are still trying to make. Make themselves understand about how their identity is a cultural mix.

Your research demonstrates remarkable scholarly depth and an interdisciplinary approach, blending history, culture, and literature to explore themes of migration, memory, identity, and the tangible symbols of cultural preservation. Your publications and ongoing projects, particularly those delving into the diaspora, postcolonial narratives, and the intersections of archival work and oral traditions, are strong indicators of your ability to contribute to both teaching and research in this role. Lastly, before we conclude this part, could you share your experience in collaborating on consultancy or industry projects, as this role requires promoting industry-institution interaction and research development?

So I have, I have sort of been lucky in being, uh, in having done my PhD from an institute where there were people from different fields. And luckily I am also in touch of many of them. Some of them, as I said, have been working on uh, uh, steal. Some of them have been working on different software. Some of them have been engaged in teaching others.

And, uh, have their own startup. So all of these individuals.

Provide me this opportunity of giving my students a place wherein they can interact and understand their necessities, their ideas of how they should be. A lot of times I also interact with my friends and understand what their requirements were when they were Btech students. So this gives me an edge, uh, in understanding the needs of my students along with it, uh, I try to.

Gain some industry experience.

In the sense that I try to foster collaboration between my students and my friends who have been working at different places or the individuals who have been.

Gladly a part of this entire conversation with the student. I am also very excited to bring to the four different projects that I wish to get grants from, get grants for from.

Uh, organizations such as ICSSR and, uh, I wish to work on NLP, I wish to work on text mining in archival reading. I wish to extract information that can help me read through these texts. And I wish to seek the students collaboration and these aspects as well, because I think that, uh, my idea of literature along with their in-depth understanding and their growing understanding of their.

Subjects can help us bring to the Institute certain projects that can help.

Uh, build not just my confidence, my, uh, research, but also the resources that I can contribute to vit.

It is clear that you value meaningful collaboration, both within academic settings and in fostering connections between students and industry professionals. Your proactive approach to integrating diverse resources, collaborating with experts, and aligning student interests with real-world applications speaks to your ability to promote industry-institution interaction effectively. Additionally, your aspirations to seek grants and include students in projects like NLP and text mining reflect a forward-thinking and research-driven mindset. Thank you for sharing your background and insights. This has provided a comprehensive view of your qualifications and alignment with the role. Let me confirm now if all skills have been verified.

Professor Jha, to begin, could you share which specific English literature course you find most rewarding to teach and why?

I would want to teach the students about migration and global workforce. There are certain books that have been written, whether it's novels or whether it's the experience of people like Satya Nadella, whether it's the experience of people like Sundar Pichai or many others who have gone from one country to the other. There are a lot of texts that have been written in forms of biographies and everything that can help a student understand that.

Story of industrialists To know the story of people, whether it's fiction or nonfiction, whether it's historical fiction, to understand that their ideas can be changing the world or that their ideas can be can be interesting, that their position as migrants in the global workforce can bring different changes. Is what I would also like to teach and I find it absolutely awarding.

Professor

Rewarding as if as you say because I am also a migrant, I have come from different place and I am looking forward to visiting different place to establishing my career at another place so that I can learn from different cultural.

Cultural parts wherein people from different backgrounds, different cultures gather together and form a strong understanding of the world that they're going to be a part of.

Professor, your emphasis on the intersections of migration, culture, and innovation is both thoughtful and relevant. Allow me to connect this to your expertise. Your Ph.D. in Postcolonial Studies likely provides a strong grounding in analyzing narratives of migration and cultural exchange. Can you elaborate on how your academic research addresses these themes? Specifically, how do you think your work contributes to understanding global and cultural dynamics, and how would you translate these findings into your pedagogy for students?

So as we are only left with 40 seconds, I would sum it up very quickly. My understanding has been that people have been dispersed across the globe. There are people of different cultures, people of different mindset, people who have different backgrounds, they have different trauma, they have different understanding of the world. What I try to put in my research is their viewpoint. I do not try to put my viewpoint over there. Rather I encourage human interaction and human participation.

Along with it, I try to use different methodology like historical revisionism. I try to integrate different philosophies of life and make it a more holistic approach of study and research. Thank you.

Thank you for that concise and thoughtful response, Professor. It’s intriguing how you prioritize diverse perspectives while employing methodologies like historical revisionism and integrating philosophies. This holistic approach reflects both rigor and depth, a quality that can enrich both research and teaching. Let’s move forward.

Not at the moment. I have learned a lot about this institution. I have heard about this institution since I was a school going person and I will always be looking forward to this role. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Professor, for sharing your thoughts and enthusiasm for the role. Before we proceed further, let me confirm: are you intending to end the interview at this point, or is there anything else you'd like to add or discuss?

That would be all from my side.

Yeah, sure. I would like to end the interview. Thank you for the time and opportunity.

Thank you for confirming, Professor. Just to be absolutely certain, are you explicitly requesting to end the interview at this point? If so, I will go ahead and conclude it.