SCHOOL OF PERFORMING ARTS

Profile of the School

   The School of Performing Arts which consists of two departments, the Department of Folklore and Culture Studies and the Department of Fine Arts and Aesthetics was formed in the year 2002. Among the Universities of Tamilnadu, Madurai Kamaraj University is the only university which has a separate School for studying the Folk and Elite arts of the Tamils and non-Tamils. The Department of Floklore and Culture Studies attracted the Ford Foundation by its innovative research programmes and got Rs. 74 Lakhs for three years research project on “ Folk crafts, Folklore and Gender”. Similarly the Department of Fine Arts and Aesthetics also got 5 Lakhs from the Govt. of Tamilnadu for a project on “ Collection of Folk Songs”. The school has the pride of getting recognition from the UGC as the Department for the Research Support (DRS) and Received Rs 23. Lakhs under SAP –I.

    Department of Folklore , a part of school of Performing Arts of Madurai Kamaraj University dedicates itself for the documentation, preservation and dissemination of South Indian Folklore since 1992. It drew national attention when a state-of-the art Folklore Archives and Recording Studio were established with the financial assistance from Ford Foundation by 1994 and when UGC sanctioned Department Research Support (DRS) grand by 2007. The Department of Folklore, second of its kind in South India, Specializes in Folk Crafts, offers a M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D in Folkloristics.

    In order to broaden the scope of folkloristics, the Department of Folklore is renamed as Department of Folklore and Culture Studies by the Vice Chancellor, Dr. Kalyani Mathivaanan and as a result of that the department was sanctioned research projects on Paddy cultures, Socio-economic conditions of folk artists and Dalit Christianity by nodal funding agencies such as ICSSR, IGNCA and UGC.

Details of Alumni Members