Presentations

I dropped by the University of Mysore today for their Suvana Manasa, an academic exhibition in which students create poster presentations about the work they’re doing for community members to check out.

Professor Sheshagiri Rao, of the Philosophy Department suggested last week I would find it interesting, and I did, mainly because how similar it was in look and feel to the so-called “Assessment Fair” we each quarter do at my college, in which students similarly create work for classmates and community members to observe.

There was that same nervous excitement on the part of students as they were setting up and, just like at Cascadia, the kids were dressed in their Sunday best and looking all fresh-scrubbed and bright-eyed for their presentations. And just like at my institution, it was charmingly familiar to see how proudly faculty members in every department basked in the glow of their students’ best work.

I enjoyed mingling with the young philosophers, including several from Thailand, here in Mysore to work on theses in Indian philosophy. What warmed my heart the most was how ecumenical the presentation boards were: there were posters about great thinkers East and West, from Shankara to Bertrand Russell,

with Ramakrishna and even Jesus Christ in-between.

I came away for the experience reflecting that—in spite of the many disparities between the history, philosophy, and spiritual tradition of India and that of the “West,” (and especially, the Anglo-American philosophical canon in which I am steeped)—from the student perspective, the learning experience may not be all that different. They’ve still got to engage with ideas and do something in the way of re-presenting them for public consumption.

And no matter where they’re from, they’ve all got to deal with that business of faculty members sunning themselves in their best work.