About Us

The School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, has a broad and open-ended agenda of documenting, processing and studying the textual basis (both verbal and audio-visual) of human society and cultural life in the widest sense. Its activities include:

  • editing manuscripts and printed texts, especially those requiring multidisciplinary inputs, in electronic and print form
  • preparing databases, bibliographies, concordances, indexes, handlists, location registers and other reference tools and search engines for cultural and textual studies
  • creating audio and audio-visual digital resources
  • studying the history of publishing and the printing press, especially in Bengal and in India as a whole
  • recording oral literature, oral history, interviews and other oral material
  • collection of ephemera (political and commercial publicity material, job printing work etc.)
  • creating resources for and promoting research in the digital humanities in India
  • developing the resources for cultural informatics in India by accessing and developing appropriate technology for the above activities: in particular, creating appropriate software
  • publishing the output in printed and digital (including online) form

The School maintains physical and digital archives, conducts research programmes, and organizes courses in these and related areas. It welcomes opportunities for meaningful collaboration with institutions and organizations with similar objectives.