Dr. Syed Jamil Ahmed
Professor
Dr. Syed Jamil Ahmed started a subsidiary course in theatre under the Faculty of Arts, Dhaka University in 1989 and established the Department of Theatre and Music in 1994. This department is currently called the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies.
For more than four decades, Professor Dr. Syed Jamil Ahmed has been holding a special position as an exceptional genius in the field of theatre in Bangladesh. After graduating from the National School of Drama, Delhi in 1978, he started a modern era in theatre of Bangladesh as a freelance theatre practitioner. The stage and lighting design and direction of Syed Jamil Ahmed, by the surprising creative implementation of the theatrical language, brings the audience face to face in an imaginary world.
In 1978, Professor Dr. Syed Jamil Ahmed received his BA degree with 1st class and 1st position from the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi, India. He then received his MA in Theatre Studies from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom in 1989. He earned his PhD on ‘Indigenous Theatrical Performance of Bangladesh’ from Dhaka University in 1997.
In the field of research and epistemology, Syed Jamil Ahmed's book Achinpakhi Infinity: Indigenous Theatre of Bangladesh is based on a field study of indigenous theatre and performances of the country's millennial tradition. Written in a scientific manner, this book is a unique document of the rich cultural expressions of thousands of years of Bangladesh. Not only at the national level, but also at the international level, this book highlights the identity of Bangladesh. His book, In Praise of Niranjan: Islam, Theatre and Bangladesh, depicts a contrasting face of present-day religious terror-ridden Bangladesh which proves the harmony of the country's popular Islam and secular culture. Moreover, His book; Reading Against the Orientalist Grain: Performance and Politics Entwined with a Buddhist Strain, Tṛtīya Bishwer Bikalpa Nāṭyadhārā: Unnayan Nāṭya: Tattwa O Prayag etc. open up different horizons of socio-politics and life in Bangladesh and South Asia with the history, theory and practice of theatre from a new perspective. More than 50 of his research articles have been published in various national and international journals. In addition to Bengali and English, some articles have been translated into Chinese and French. His unique research papers have been published in renowned theatrical and multidisciplinary journals such as The Drama Review (TDR, MIT Press-USA), New Theatre Quarterly (NTQ, a Cambridge Journal) and Asian Theatre Journal (ATJ, Hawaii University Press). Through this, the theatre-culture-religion-philosophy-history of Bangladesh has been presented in an intellectual and pleasant manner to the readers, researchers and academics all over the world.
Professor Syed Jamil Ahmed is one of the acclaimed proponents and artisans of the construction of the national theatre format of Bangladesh. He was creatively able to put into practice the ideology and experience of participating, as a freedom fighter, in our great liberation war in the field of cultural nationalism and post-colonial self-identity based theatre. By making wonderful productions at home and abroad like Chaka, Bishad Sindhu, Ek Hazar Aur Ek Thi Rate, KamalaRanir Sagar Dighi, Pahiye, Behular Bhasan, Macbeth, Shong Bhong Chong, Rizwan, Jibon O Rajnoitik Bastobota, 4.48 Mantras etc. he enriched the theatre of Bangladesh from national level to international level. The direction of all these plays and the inseparable beautiful relationship between the text, space and design of about eighty productions, and its political significance and spiritual beauty are exceptional in the originality of the theatrical invention.
He has received the ‘Bangladesh Shilpakala Padak-2016’ from Abdul Hamid, President of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, for his special contribution to the field of theatre at the national and international level. He has been awarded ‘Munir Chowdhury Padak’ by the important theatre group of Bangladesh ‘Theatre’; ‘Nandikar National Theatre Award’ by India's renowned theatre troupe ‘Nandikar. Bangladesh National Library and Archives awarded him the Best Book Award in 2000 for his research book ‘Acinpakhi Infinity: Indigenous Theatre of Bangladesh’. He is a life-time member of Bangladesh Asiatic Society and Bangla Academy. He is continuing his responsibility as a Member at International Advisory Board, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, Contributing Editor at New Theatre Quarterly, Member at International Advisory Board, IDEA/Applied Theatre Research Journal.
He successfully presented academic papers at seminars, conducted workshops and directed plays in United States of America (USA), Canada, United Kingdom (UK), France, Germany, Norway, Russia, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Japan and China (Hong Kong).
As a result of Syed Jamil Ahmed's academic work on theatre, the academic discipline of performing arts in Bangladesh gained a strong foundation. The former department (Department of Theatre) has now been transformed into the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies through his distinguished activities and role of theoretical knowledge .Which has adopted a vision to become on par with worldwide academic practice in the field of theatre and performance. His syllabus is being followed in many public universities in Bangladesh. Thus, higher education in theatre is being enriched in Bangladesh, and it is expanding and the way is being paved for the creation of a new generation of skilled and conscious people to play the effective role of cultural practice and education in building Bangladesh in the spirit of the war of liberation.
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