Representing Alliance University, faculties from the Alliance School of Liberal Arts at Alliance University participated in the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL), 2024, held from February 8–11, 2024, in Kanakakunnu Palace, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

The MBIFL is one of the largest literary festivals in India, and in the theme for its fifth edition, it explored the theme of plurality and understanding diverse perspectives, cultures, and identities.

Dr Sayan Dey, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Alliance University, moderated and spoke in three sessions that covered topics such as migration, displacement, homecoming, food cultures, decolonization, and politics. The sessions involved conversations with eminent intellectuals from across domains, like Mary Chamberlain, Carey Baraka, Jane Joseph, and Mansoura Ezeldoun. Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament (Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala) and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for External Affairs, also joined Dr Sayan for the panel discussion on 'Decolonizing the Mind.'

Dr Ravi Chakraborty, Assistant Professor and Director for Communication at Liberal Arts at Alliance University, was involved in a discussion with Dr Sajitha Bashir, who was a former advisor to the World Bank on global education practices. They observed that governments cannot absolve their obligations towards the education sector by outsourcing teaching to AI-driven apps. Dr Ravi Chakraborty conducted one more panel around the theme of AI, during which the panelists arrived at the consensus that overspecialization in education could be threatened by AI trained on specialized datasets.

Dr Anirudh Sridhar, Dean of Thought Leadership at Alliance University, engaged in a conversation with Professor Marcus Du Sautoy, where they discussed the value of appreciating the aesthetics of the mathematical process.

Dr. Liju Jacob Kuriakose, Assistant Dean, Alliance School of Liberal Arts at Alliance University, engaged in a panel with Prof. Tejaswini Niranjana, Prof. AJ Thomas, and Ms. Juana Adcock that centered on translation's nature and possibilities in an AI-driven future.

Adam Hussain, a Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford, extolled the vital importance of learning more than one language to improve our literary sensibility in his panel.

Alliance University shall continue to participate in such literary and cultural forums across the country that are setting the standards for quality public conversations.