Dr. Bitasta Das

Dr. Bitasta Das is Instructor-Humanities at the Undergraduate Programme of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She has a Ph.D in Cultural Studies and has qualified the NET in Folk Literature. At UG-IISc she teaches two papers: “Cultural Analysis” and “Mapping India through the Folk Arts”. ( http://www.iisc.ernet.in/ug/UG-Humanities.pdf)

About the course taught by her: In the seminar course “Mapping India through the Folk Arts” conducted in the fourth semester of UG-IISc, every year a different folk art form is discussed; either visual, narrative or performative. The idea is to understand the nation and its people a little better by exploring the folk arts. This course also tries to push disciplinary boundaries. The assignments attempt to have a dialogue between Science with Humanities. In one year students were asked to represent scientific concepts through the visual folk arts of India, in another year students have composed, sung and recorded Indian folk songs narrating life at IISc and scientific ideas, in the latest edition of the course students have performed Indian folk plays talking against unscientific practices  and  current social problems.