Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture

From 2013 the College has begun holding an annual lecture, dedicated to the memory of its founding father, Dr. Alexander Duff, to be delivered by an eminent personality. In the fitness of things, the first Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture, held on 13th July 2013, as part of the 184th Foundation Day Celebration, was delivered by the then Governor of Odisha and our alumnus, Dr. S. C. Jamir.

The first Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture

The Second Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture was held on 14th July 2014, was delivered by Sri Jawhar Sircar, the then CEO, Prasar Bharati, Government of India and acclaimed social historian.

The Second Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture

The Third Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture, held on 25th August 2015, was delivered by Dr. Bikash Sinha, Indian National Science Academy Emeritus Scientist and Former Homi Bhabha Professor, DAE, Former Director, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre Kolkata, on the 'Neoteric Culture of Education'.

The Third Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture

The fourth Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture was held on 24th March 2017. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Uma Dasgupta, a distinguished historian and leading expert in Tagore Studies, on 'Vidya or Siksha: Situating Rabindranath Tagore'’s Ideas on Education'. She taught at Jadavpur University, Visva Bharati University at Shantiniketan and Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta. Prof. Dasgupta also served the United States Educational Foundation in India as Regional Director for Eastern India.

The fourth Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture

The fifth Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture was held on 12th September 2017. The lecture was delivered by Dr. Palash Baran Pal, eminent physicist of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, an Emeritus Professor in the Physics Department, University of Calcutta, a writer, a linguist and a poet. He spoke on the 'History and Mystery of Calendars'

The fifth Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture

The Sixth Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dr. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, Professor of Asian History and Director, New Zealand India Research Institute, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand on 12th March 2019. The title of his lecture was, ‘The Long History of Partition and Migration in Bengal, 1947-1956’.

The sixth Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture

Braving the odds caused by the global pandemic, the college successfully organised the Seventh Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture on 18th December 2020 on a digital platform. Prof. Dipesh Chakrabarty, the Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor in History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago, USA, delivered the lecture for 2020-2021. The title was not only interesting, it was highly intriguing too: ‘The Planetary Age in Human History’. His focus was on the contradiction between the Nature and modern technology. Prof. Chakrabarty described man as a "geo-natural force" in the transformation of Nature. For man has the power of technology to change the face of the earth and the Nature. Man is the manipulator of the globalised world which has over the years expanded and encroached on Nature. We are living in a technology‐centric civilisation which can make robot bees to carry on artiicial pollination. Is this mechanical civilisation our destiny then?

The seventh Alexander Duff Memorial Lecture