{"id":941,"date":"2019-09-30T09:55:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-30T09:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/?p=941"},"modified":"2019-11-18T07:24:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-18T07:24:27","slug":"a-conversation-with-prof-arjya-majumdar-childhood-aspirations-growing-up-in-calcutta-superheroes-meteoric-career-highs-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/2019\/09\/30\/a-conversation-with-prof-arjya-majumdar-childhood-aspirations-growing-up-in-calcutta-superheroes-meteoric-career-highs-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation with Prof Arjya Majumdar- Childhood Aspirations, Growing up in Calcutta, Superheroes, Meteoric Career Highs and More"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Prof. Arjya Majumdar started teaching at the Jindal Global Law School after a seven-year stint in corporate law. Today he is the Director of Academic Planning, Coordination and Interdisciplinary, as well as the Director of Admissions and Outreach at JGU. Once an \u201caspiring tram driver\u201d now puts students in the driver\u2019s seat of their careers. The trained mountaineer, now enables them to scale new heights of personal and professional growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Majumdar\u2019s training with Himalayan Mountaineering Institute not only ignited his passion for the environment but taught him an important lesson that when you surmount challenges whether physical or otherwise, you gain in self-confidence. It\u2019s an important takeaway that he seriously hopes to imbibe in his students too. He taught himself to play the guitar when he was 16. It\u2019s probably something to do with him being \u201cintellectually curious\u201d as he describes himself. And with time, he started realizing his passion for varied subjects and areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He quotes scientist Ian Malcolm from Jurassic Park as he tries to highlight the importance of interdisciplinarity in higher education. The characters in Hollywood blockbuster were so caught up in finding out whether they could clone dinosaurs that they forgot to ask the question; whether they should. \u201cThose are two different questions from two different perspectives. That\u2019s why interdisciplinary is important. It\u2019s important for the holistic growth of students and in giving them broader perspectives,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 His favorite superheroes are Ironman and Batman. The reasoning is simple, \u201cAll other superheroes in DC and Marvel have superpowers. These two are among them because of their intellect, grit and sheer determination.\u201d What fantastic qualities to learn from a superhero, we mean, a faculty, who practices what he actually preaches!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding his passion and the roller-coaster of Corporate Law<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a young boy growing up in pre-liberalized West Bengal, Prof. Majumdar nurtured his love for theater, culture and music. Growing up in a middle-class family background, along with the social and political milieu of Kolata dealing with frequent strikes in Kolkata meant things weren\u2019t always easy. \u201cIt gave me a huge benefit in terms of opening my mind and my horizons. It was a brilliant time, which in many ways raised my intellectual curiosity, wanting to try out different things\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Prof. Majumdar had completed his high school education from St. Joseph\u2019s College, his childlike interests of becoming a tram driver had evolved into being a journalist. The road to NUJS had actually put a spanner in his wheels. \u201cThe entrance test result made me realize that there are many learned people studying law, and that they think I might be worthy of it too. So, I gave it a shot, enjoyed it and soon after my BA LLB went to Tulane University, US for my Masters,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after his Masters, Prof. Majumdar joined the corporate law firm Fox & Mandal and stayed on for 4 years. Within three months of his joining the firm, he was asked to man their London office. It was practically unheard of for a first year Associate. The high was followed by the low of the 2008 global financial crisis. \u201cI went without a salary for three months but continued to work. It was an interesting and humbling time,\u201d he says in retrospect. He would go on to join Desai & Diwanji, another corporate law firm later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry\u2019s loss, academia\u2019s gain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Majumdar joined JGLS in 2013 and teaches corporate law and ancillary subjects at the university. He is also the Director for Academic Planning, Coordination and Interdisciplinarity and looks after the university\u2019s rankings. \u201cWithin a span of ten years, the university have made it to the top 2.67% of all universities globally. We hope to better our position in the world rankings in the future. The quality of our alumni in the industry and our academic network gives us our reputation,\u201d he says proudly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Network and reputation to boast of<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a short span of 10 years, JGU has mustered 250 international collaborations with top universities around the world. Prof. Majumdar asserts that there has been a dedicated effort to be more international and this is revealed in the university\u2019s research focus as well. \u201cWe offer substantial rewards to faculty members to publish in top journals. We consistently try to build as many quality partnerships all over the world as we can,\u201d he speaks of the efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes JGU global?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Prof. Majumdar, there are three distinct reasons why JGU is a truly global university. Firstly, the university hires faculty with at least one international degree or international experience. \u201cSecondly, our courses are steeped in the globally accepted practices and conform to globally accepted curricula. Finally, our pedagogies are global in nature, like the emphasis on case studies, which is followed at Harvard Law School,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurdles for interdisciplinarity in India<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally India has tried to set itself apart through super specialty. As early as in class 11th students are asked to choose between Science, Commerce, Arts, Humanities etc. \u201cThe problem with this is that you fail to understand that there is a world beyond your discipline. A law student should know a bit about finance and business. How else do you advise a client on business law? That has become a cornerstone to our approach to interdisciplinarity,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interdisciplinarity at JGU<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With its eight schools, JGU has an inherent advantage that lends itself to interdisciplinary learning. Prof. Majumdar talks about the cross-listed electives from different schools that can be chosen by all students at the University. \u201cWe find that the students who do take up the cross-listed electives tend to have a better understanding of the world they live in. For future professionals and leaders, it\u2019s really important to have such holistic education,\u201d he claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The man behind the academic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ask Prof. Majumdar one world problem he would like to fix, and pat comes the reply \u2013 climate crisis. Anything he would like to change about his life? He ponders and says that he regrets not studying engineering or an MBA but adds that he wouldn\u2019t trade his life at all. Book he wants to write? \u201cIt would be to my son telling him about my life and mistakes I have made. Hopefully he won\u2019t follow mine but make his own.\u201d It\u2019s something he wishes for his students too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. Arjya Majumdar started teaching at the Jindal Global Law School after a seven-year stint in corporate law. Today he is the Director of Academic Planning, Coordination and Interdisciplinary, as well as the Director of Admissions and Outreach at JGU. Once an \u201caspiring tram driver\u201d now puts students in the Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[25,26,27,28],"class_list":["post-941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","tag-jindal-global-law-school","tag-llb","tag-llm","tag-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":943,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941\/revisions\/943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}