The Department of English at IUB organized an international conference on Shakespeare titled as “Age Cannot Wither Him, Nor Custom Stale His Infinite Variety Shakepeare: Four Hundred Years After” from November 03 to 05, 2016. Mr. Asaduzzaman Noor MP, Honourable Minister of Cultural Affairs, Government of Bangladesh was the Chief Guest and Dr. Gowher Rizvi, International Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh was the Special Guest.
In the inaugural session the keynote speaker Dr. Imtiaz Habib, Professor of Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA delivered his keynote speech titled as ‘Bengal in Shakespeare’s India: The Critical Archaeology of a Dark Historical Narrative in A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Mr. Muhammad Nazrul Islam, Head (Acting) of the Department of English, Leading University presented a research paper on the inaugural day of the conference which was titled as ‘Shakespeare’s Works: Mastery over Human Psychology’.
Other renowned scholars who had presented their papers in different sessions throughout the conference included Prof. Dr. Syed Manzoorul Islam, Prof. Dr. Fakrul Alam, Prof. Dr. Niaz Zaman, Prof. Dr. Shamsad Mortuza, Prof. Mohit Ul Alam. In addition to this, noted actors and theatre activists Ramendu Majumder and Ataur Rahman shared their experiences regarding the staging of Shakespeare’s plays in Bangladesh.
There were varied but interesting presentations on Shakespeare’s works ranging from postmodern reading of his works to Shakespeare’s influence on culinary culture and what not!
The conference ended with the stage performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth by Padatik Nattya Sangsad following Syed Shamsul Haq’s Bangla adaptation.