In an era where crime rates and societal concerns about safety have significantly heightened, understanding the psyche of offenders and the dynamics of victimisation has never been more crucial. The Department of Psychology at the Easwari School of Liberal Arts organised an enlightening guest talk delivered by Dr Amrutha Karyil, an expert in Crimes against Women and Children, Victimology, and Victim Assistance. Dr Karyil’s insightful discourse shed light on the complex world of victim profiling, engaging students in a thought-provoking discussion about its historical evolution, methodologies, and ethical dimensions.

Dr Karyil in her presentation offered a fascinating overview of the history of profiling, tracing its roots back to the Salem Witch Trials and the harrowing case of Jack the Ripper. She elaborated on how profiling serves as a form of behavioural evidence analysis, focusing on the crucial intersection of psychology and criminal investigations. By examining crime scenes, victim backgrounds, and the modus operandi of offenders, profiling seeks to narrow the suspect pool, providing law enforcement with valuable insights into potential perpetrators.

During the talk, Dr Karyil detailed five major types of profiling: psychological, suspect-based, geographical, crime scene, and equivocal death analysis. She stressed that while profiling can be an invaluable investigative tool, it is by no means definitive. Rather, it aids in understanding the underlying patterns of criminal behaviour and assists investigators in their pursuit of justice.

Dr Karyil further explored the broader implications of victim profiling in crime scene analysis. She shared compelling statistics and characteristics of victims targeted by notorious serial killers, urging attendees to recognise the patterns and signatures that often reveal themselves in such cases. The talk underscored the necessity of fostering awareness and specialised training in addressing severe offences, reflecting on the ethical responsibilities that come with careers in forensic psychology.

The event also served as a catalyst for vibrant discussions about the ethical challenges. Students expressed their interest in diverse career paths such as crime scene analysis, offender profiling, and counselling within the criminal justice system. Dr Karyil’s expertise and engaging delivery inspired many to consider how they might contribute to this vital area of society, whether through research, advocacy, or direct service.

The Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering is pleased to announce the publication of a significant research paper by Dr Anirbhan Ghosh, Assistant Professor, exploring MIMO channel capacity at high frequencies (300 GHz), which holds great potential for beyond 5G and 6G networks. The paper “MIMO Channel Capacity Measurement in Open Square Hot Spot Access Scenarios at 300 GHz” published in the Q1 journal IEEE Wireless Communication Letters, investigates data transmission in three different line-of-sight (LoS) scenarios and contributes to building the next generation of communication networks, which will have a significant positive impact on society by improving connectivity, supporting technological advancements, and promoting economic development.

Abstract

This letter explores the possibility and effectiveness of using multiple communication paths for futuristic outdoor networks, focusing on three scenarios: clear line-of-sight (LoS), partially obstructed line-of-sight (OLoS), and completely blocked line-of-sight (NLoS). A study was conducted at a high frequency of 300 GHz to measure how many useful communication paths are available for transmitting data simultaneously. Based on the results, the average data transmission capacity for these paths was calculated, both with and without the help of passive reflecting surfaces (PRS). The findings show that using multiple antennas significantly boosts the average data capacity, and PRS further enhances this improvement.

Practical Implementation of the Research

The results align with the design of high-frequency, ultra-high-speed, low-latency, reliable communication envisioned for several futuristic applications beyond 5G and 6G Networks.

Collaborations

Prof. Minseok Kim, Professor, Faculty of Engineering, Course of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Niigata University, Japan.

Dr Ghosh plans to extend his efforts to other communication scenarios for a similar study. He opines that generating appropriate channel models, coverage design, etc., for the explored scenario would also be an exciting study.

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Microplastic pollution is an urgent environmental crisis that threatens ecosystems on land and in water. Addressing this critical issue, Associate Professor and HoD, Dr Rangabhashiyam Selvasembian from the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering has published a groundbreaking book titled Microplastics, Environmental Pollution and Degradation Process with Springer. This book examines the perilous effects of microplastics, their characterisation, and innovative treatment strategies. By integrating the latest research and insights, Dr Selvasembiyan’s work serves as a vital guide for students, researchers, and policymakers committed to combating microplastics and protecting our environment.

About this Book

This book presents microplastics pollution in land and water bodies, their hazardous effects, characterization approaches, and suitable means of utilizing advanced treatment options to solve the problem. It is mainly understood that microplastic pollutants are associated with water bodies, however there also exists soil contamination and their interaction with the food web. The discussions related to strategies and policies for the management of microplastics are very limited. This book not only narrows microplastic pollution in marine or fresh water bodies, but also takes into account the terrestrial environment, including the toxicity effects, characterization aspects and treatment approaches. The main feature of the book includes latest research related to microplastics pollution, examining the different health effects including environmental (related) issues and highlights the advances in treatment approaches. The book serves as a guide with an up-to-date information on microplastics related problems useful for students, researchers, professionals/environmentalists and also as a reference for policy makers.

Collaborations:

• Professor Ajay Kumar Mishra, Professor – Durban University of Technology, South Africa.
• Dr. Pankaj Raizada, Professor -School of Advanced Chemical Sciences, Shoolini University, Solan (H.P) India.
• Dr Elsayed T Helmy, Researcher – National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Egypt
• Prof. Santhiagu Arockiasamy Professor- National Institute of Technology Calicut, India.

Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-6461-7

Dr Manaswini Sen, Assistant Professor at the Department of History, has published an insightful paper tracing the ideological and intellectual output of women trade unionists in late colonial Bengal. Her research paper titled “(Re)Inventing Feminism within the Discourse of Class Struggle: Women and Intellectual History in the Trade Union Movement of Late Colonial Bengal (1920–1947)”, published in the prestigious Journal of the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists, offers a novel perspective on understanding the class struggle, anticolonial discourse in the patriarchal society of colonial Bengal.

Abstract

This paper envisages (re)constructing the intellectual praxis of women trade unionists in late colonial Bengal. By arguing how political practice habitually translates to political thought, the paper devises a methodology to address the gendered discourse of intellectual history in the Global South. It focuses on intellectual output, primarily journal articles of women trade unionists like Santoshi Kumari Gupta, Maitreyee Bose, and Kanak Mukherjee, to trace a genealogy of how class struggle was perceived by women labour activists across the ideological spectrum of nationalism, socialism, and communism between 1920 to 1947 in Bengal. The piece is an effort to transcend the manifold marginalisations that plague the establishment of feminine political praxis within the regulating structures of colonialism and capitalism. In the process, it bids to unfold an alternative narrative of the anti-colonial, anti-capitalist, and anti-patriarchal narrative of the decolonisation of South Asian intellectual thought.

Research, Collaboration and Future Research Plans

The research strives to bring to the forefront the intellectual contributions of three female trade unionists in the late colonial period to trace the evolution of discourses on anticolonial class struggle from a gendered perspective. With the global turn in intellectual history, there is an augmented effort at amplifying the ‘small voices of history’. The inherent socio-cultural predicaments in our society make it inordinately challenging to trace conventional sources for mapping the intellectual endeavours of women. This paper aims to rectify this gap by reconstructing women labour activists’ intellectual practises and literary output in the early 20th century. In the process, the research tries to bring forth narratives of anticolonialism, which drowns in the overwhelming presence of nationalism in the discourses of decolonisation of South Asia. This paper was the result of academic exchanges with professors of Benaras Hindu University, Dr B.R. Ambedkar University, Delhi, and the University of Paderborn, Germany.

Dr Sen primarily researches marginal anticolonial epistemological traditions of South and South East Asia. Her thesis on the evolution and dissemination of socialism in late colonial Bengal, which focuses on an intellectual history of trade unionism, forms the basis of her first monograph. However, she is now focusing on the transnational and transcontinental intellectual networks of a wide spectrum of leftist labour activists and proto-nationalists and the ways these fringe intellectual traditions interacted with each other and nationalism. Based on a rich archive across India and Europe and a plethora of alternative sources, she tends to devise new methodological interventions in the field of Global Intellectual History, making labour history more accessible and relevant in scholarly circles.

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Dr Partha Bhattacharjee, Assistant Professor from the Department of Literature and Languages, along with his scholar Mr Rounak Gupta has published their paper titled “Fractured Identities and Wounded Memories in Indian Comics on Partition: A Decolonial Reading of Frame and Panel” in the esteemed Q1 journal Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. This paper explains comics as a medium whose panels, frames, and stylistic aspects can be interpreted in the Indian context. This interpretation has been read as a decolonial intervention into the medium’s history and the established aesthetic theories.

Abstract

Within the liaison of decoloniality studies and comics studies, this paper investigates how the decolonial visual style in the comics anthology This Side That Side (2013) has been used to locate the traumatised past and violation of human rights due to the “b/ordering” practices of partition of India (Rifkind 2017; Bhattacharjee and Tripathi 2022). “The Taboo” by Malini Gupta and Dyuti Mittal, “An Afterlife” by Sanjoy Chakraborty, and “Making Faces” by Orijit Sen cultivate the stories of the inhumane condition of the migrants and victims during and after the Indo-Pakistan and Indo-Bangladesh-Pakistan partition. These narratives exemplify decolonised counter comics narratives on collective and personal memories (Chute 2016; Mickwitz 2016; Ahmed and Crucifix 2018) inflicted upon and against the dominant partition discourse. They help churn out the human stories of the interminable psychological violence of partition and post-partitioned reality.

The paradigm established in this research can later be used to interpret different formations within comics, especially pertaining to decolonial aesthetics, dialogue, and attitude.

Collaborations

This paper has been published as a part of a continuing study that began with the preceding paper – Bhattacharjee, Partha, and Priyanka Tripathi. 2022. “Penning the Pain of Partition: Refugee Camp Narratives in Indian Comics.” Studies in Comics 12(2): 179-200. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/stic_00062_1.

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