Yakshagana as your Master's thesis? That's definitely a possibility if you opt to study the new Master of Arts (MA) programme in Ecosophical Aesthetics that is being launched by the Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences (GCPAS), a constituent department of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (Deemed University) from August this year.
A two-year programme to fulfill the need for ‘art writers’, it is an intersection of journalism, philosophy, ecology, arts and sciences. It is essentially ‘art journalism from the ecosophical perspective’. "The course is about art writing or journalism from an ecosophical perspective. Ecosophy combines ecology and philosophy. The course includes the appreciation of different art forms such as music, dance, theatre, painting, visual arts, cinema and literature and writing about them with in-depth knowledge about them. While Ecosophical Aesthetics itself is a very new area, a post-graduate programme with this nomenclature doesn’t exist anywhere. Even the course content is original and unique in the sense that it addresses the most significant contemporary challenges of ecological crisis while bringing diverse areas together making it holistic," says Professor Varadesh Hiregange, Director, Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences.
Anyone with an undergraduate or equivalent degree can enrol for this programme. Explaining how journalism is a vital part of this course, Varadesh says, "As the focus is on writing about different arts, it may be broadly described as ‘specialised journalism’. Meanwhile, there is also a full paper on ‘Journalism, Media and Communication’. Writing is integral to every paper and hence, journalism may be treated as part of it. The course is also within journalism and much more than that."
If you are wondering what are the career options after you take up this course, the possibilities are endless — from academics and research, journalism, media and communication to the socio-cultural and environmental sector.
The papers on offer are Introduction to Ecosophical Aesthetics, Cultural History of the World, History of Science, Overview of Literature, Ecology and Environment as a part of the first semester; Research Methodology, Fundamentals of Music, Essentials of Dance, Painting and other Visual Arts, Appreciating Theatre in the second semester, semester three includes Dissertation, Journalism, Media and Communication, Nuances of Creative Writing, Understanding Cinema and the final semester includes Advanced Ecosophical Aesthetics, Ecological Economics, Ecological Management and Sustainability.
Look forward to electives such as Yakshagana Appreciation, Folkloristics, Society, History and Polity, Gandhian Studies, Peace Studies and so on at different levels during the programme.
