Aligarh, Feb. 22: Noted scholar, Sahitya Akademi award winner and a senior faculty in the Department of Mass Communication, Aligarh Muslim University, Professor Shafey Kidwai has been appointed Director, Sir Syed Academy with immediate effect.
His well-researched works on Sir Syed, including his bestseller book published by Routledge in 2020, “Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Reason, Religion and Nation”, have earned him the stature of a distinguished Sir Syed scholar. His book candidly highlights Sir Syed’s contribution to the collective life of India, who is more than a mere founder of the university.
A well-known communication expert, bilingual critic, translator and columnist, Prof Kidwai has received the highest literary award of the country, Sahitya Akademi Award for his enterprising work on Sir Syed in Urdu, “Sawanah-e-Sir Syed”, in the year 2019, Madhya Pradesh Government’s prestigious award for literature, Iqbal Samman in 2017 and Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy’s highest award for literary achievement, Amir Khusro Award in 2018.
His another book, “Urdu Literature and Journalism: Critical Perspective” (Cambridge University Press, India, 2014) enumerates how Urdu journalism and literature resisted the alien rule and urged the countrymen to wage relentless struggle against the subjugation.
He has published 12 books in English and Urdu including “Sawanah-e-Sir Syed”, “Aligarh Institute Gazette: Ek Tajziyati Mutala”, “Fiction Mutale’at”, “Miraji”, “Khabar Nigari”, “Michael Mdhusudan Dutt” and “R.K. Nrayan”, etc. He also compiled and translated frequently used terms of mass communication in Urdu and prepared a style book for the ETV Urdu, Hyderabad.
His book reviews and columns regularly appear in The Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, The Hindu, The Outlook, The Frontline, The Book Review and The Siyasat. His fortnightly column “Going Native” for the Friday Review of The Hindu, received wide appreciation from scholars in India and abroad.
He served Sahitya Akademi twice as a member of its General Council and was on the Urdu Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi for three terms. He was also convener of Bhasha Committee (Urdu) for Saraswati Samman and Jnanpith Award. He was also General Council Member of National Council for Promotion of Urdu. He is the editorial board member of reputed journal, Rozan-e-Rekhta and others, and contributes regularly to the literary journals of Urdu and English.
He has been teaching communication theories, cultural studies, broadcast journalism, film studies since 1985. He was appointed Professor in 2005 and served as the chairman of the Department of Mass Communication for four times.
