{"id":76,"date":"2011-07-31T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2011-07-30T18:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcurocks.wordpress.com\/?p=76"},"modified":"2011-07-31T00:00:54","modified_gmt":"2011-07-30T18:30:54","slug":"alladi-uma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/31\/alladi-uma\/","title":{"rendered":"Alladi Uma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Our colleague Alladi Uma<\/strong> retires from the University after a distinguished career of 20 or so years at the end of July 2011. Although this is just about two months since I joined the University, I have known of Uma’s work for some time now, particularly in the area of translation.
\nOn the occasion of her retirement, her student (and colleague in the English Department) Sindhu Menon<\/strong> writes: \u00a0Professor Alladi Uma joined the University of Hyderabad in 1991, after serving Sri Padmavati Mahila Viswavidyalayam and Osmania University for five years.\u00a0 She has opted to retire from our University at the end of this month having served the University with distinction for 20 years.<\/em>
\nThe hallmark of Prof. Alladi Uma\u2019s work has consistently been the very rare combination of a questioning, dynamic perspective and an impeccable \u2018traditional\u2019 scholarship.\u00a0\u00a0 She was largely instrumental in making \u201cIndian Writing in English\u201d a mandatory course.\u00a0 She was also responsible for arguing a case for two mandatory American Literature courses when the syllabus was heavily British literature centred. She was mainly responsible for making the Ph. D., courses Pass\/Fail courses, rather than the traditional grueling grading system. \u00a0She organized one of the first workshops on American literature syllabuses for teachers across the country.\u00a0 More recently she jointly co-ordinated a seminar on \u201cDalits and English\u201d, a seminar that is perceived as a landmark event in the history of the Department<\/em>
\nIt is truly impossible to retain a comfortable complacency about any subject after one has listened to Prof. Uma\u2019s inevitably perceptive, radical and demanding insights on it. This, in turn has generated work which refuses to be second-hand and bears the stamp of originality among her students, research scholars and all those who look to her for her unique brand of incisive and insightful critique.\u00a0 No wonder she was an extremely popular teacher and a much sought after Supervisor.\u00a0 She has inspired hundreds of students in her career spanning over 25 years.\u00a0\u00a0 She has so far supervised 27 students.\u00a0 She is a rare example of an \u2018other-oriented\u2019 teacher who takes genuine pleasure in having communicated a fresh viewpoint to a class, in seeing the improved and self reliant work of a student she has inspired and in the manifestation in not just arid discussion but in actual social practice of the ideas she had set in circulation.\u00a0 She was always innovative in the courses she taught.\u00a0 Some of the Optional Courses she offered such as \u201cWhat\u2019s in a genre,\u201d \u201cIn-discipline,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhy teach these texts?,\u201c\u00a0 \u201cReading Dalit Reading Black\u201d and \u201cWomen Writing Writing Women\u201d bear testimony to this.<\/em>
\nAs a scholar she has significantly contributed to the areas of African American literature, Indian Writing in English, Women\u2019s Studies, Translation and Dalit Studies. \u00a0\u00a0Prof Uma literally stands out therefore as one of a very limited number of teachers who are distinguished equally as scholars and as teachers in the true sense of the term.<\/em>
\n\"\"<\/a>One does not often have the chance to encounter an HOD who gets work done with the greatest of efficiency, but never for a second allows bureaucracy to make her forget the human element. \u00a0Awe for her achievements and efficiency never deterred anyone\u2014student, non-teaching staff or colleague– from approaching her if there was a genuine problem, as it has been repeatedly proved that such problems once brought to her notice were treated as her own individual concerns till they had been solved. \u00a0\u00a0She has held important administrative positions\u2014she was the first woman to have held the position of the Head of the Department of English at the University of Hyderabad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 She has also served more recently as Chief Proctor of the University. \u00a0Teacher, scholar, activist and friend \u2013qualities that need to be praised and admired equally–as all of these she held together simultaneously.\u00a0\u00a0 But this remarkable achievement has been the signature tune of Prof. Uma\u2019s work and bears testimony to her commitment and integrity.\u00a0\u00a0 As a member of the School Board, the Academic Council and the Court, she was very forthright in her comments.\u00a0 She had always expressed her views fearlessly, even if some of them were unpalatable to the administration.<\/em>
\nIt will be hard to replace someone who has meant so much to her Department and the University.\u00a0 We wish her all the very best for the task she has carved for herself in the years to come.<\/em>
\nThe University will miss Prof. Uma, but we also know that she is close at hand, and always available to mentor, counsel, and help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our colleague Alladi Uma retires from the University after a distinguished career of 20 or so years at the end of July 2011. Although this is just about two months since I joined the University, I have known of Uma’s work for some time now, particularly in the area of translation. On the occasion of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retirements"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paG6mN-1e","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramramaswamy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}