A Sight in The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan

By: Muham­mad Adnan Guj­jar

Worth Not­ing:

• The first day of the con­fer­ence, Jan­u­ary 29, 2025, marked a his­toric mile­stone in the Depart­ment of Eng­lish Lan­guage and Lit­er­a­ture, as two esteemed inter­na­tion­al keynote speak­ers graced the occa­sion: Men­vin­der Kaur Sar­jit Singh, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Applied Lin­guis­tics at the School of Lan­guages and Phi­los­o­phy, Uni­ver­si­ty Utara Malaysia, and Dr. Reham Hos­ny, an Asso­ciate Fel­low at the Lev­er­hulme Cen­ter for the Future of Intel­li­gence, Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge, UK.
• The day was par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial, char­ac­ter­ized by thought-pro­vok­ing dis­cus­sions, intel­lec­tu­al depth, and a warm, engag­ing atmos­phere that brought togeth­er a dis­tin­guished gath­er­ing of schol­ars. The event pro­vid­ed a plat­form for explor­ing mod­ern trends in lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture, fos­ter­ing insight­ful dia­logue among the intel­lec­tu­al elite.

The Depart­ment of Eng­lish at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lahore, Lahore con­tin­ues to shape the aca­d­e­m­ic land­scape with exper­tise and lead­er­ship. Its unwa­ver­ing char­ac­ter is evi­dent in its grace and ded­i­ca­tion to acad­e­mia. While its con­tri­bu­tions are mul­ti­fac­eted, a recent land­mark ini­tia­tive stands out— the orga­ni­za­tion of an inter­na­tion­al con­fer­ence titled The Future of AI in Lin­guis­tics and Lit­er­a­ture, held on Jan­u­ary 29–30, 2025. This event marked a his­toric mile­stone for the Depart­ment of Eng­lish at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lahore. Since the department’s incep­tion, such an achieve­ment had seemed like a dis­tant dream, but the con­fer­ence orga­niz­ing com­mit­tees turned it into real­i­ty. The high­light of the con­fer­ence was DELL’s abil­i­ty to bring togeth­er a dis­tin­guished assem­bly of researchers, crit­ics, pan­elists, and review­ers. It wel­comed both nation­al and inter­na­tion­al intel­lec­tu­al elites, fos­ter­ing insight­ful dis­cus­sions.

In his inau­gur­al speech, Dr. Zahid (Head, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor & Con­ven­er, Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Lin­guis­tics and Litear­ture-ICLl-2025) expressed his grat­i­tude to the ded­i­cat­ed fac­ul­ty mem­bers whose tire­less efforts made the Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Lin­guis­tics and Lit­er­a­ture (ICLL-2025) a resound­ing suc­cess. He said that it stands as a mile­stone in the department’s his­to­ry, boast­ing an unprece­dent­ed reg­is­tra­tion of near­ly 500 par­tic­i­pants and a record sub­mis­sion of approx­i­mate­ly 200 abstracts. In the wel­come note, the Dean of the Fac­ul­ty of Lan­guages and Lit­er­a­ture, Prof. Dr. Asghar Nadeem Syed said that host­ing such a grand intel­lec­tu­al gath­er­ing was a sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge, but the dili­gence and ded­i­ca­tion of the orga­niz­ing com­mit­tee ensured its suc­cess, mak­ing it an event to be envied. He fur­ther expressed his heart­felt grat­i­tude to the Chair­man of the Board of Gov­er­nors, Mr. Awais Raoof; the Mem­ber of the Board of Gov­er­nors and Dean of Stu­dent Affairs, Madam Ammara Awais; the Rec­tor, Prof. Dr. Muham­mad Ashraf; the Deputy Chair­man of the Board of Gov­er­nors, Mr. Uzair Raoof; the Pro-Rec­tor Aca­d­e­mics, Mr. Nasir Mah­mood for their unwa­ver­ing patron­age, sup­port, and coop­er­a­tion. The Chief Guest of the Con­fer­ence, the Mem­ber of the Board of Gov­er­nors and the Dean of Stu­dent Affairs, Madam Ammara Awais, wel­comed both nation­al and inter­na­tion­al intel­lec­tu­al speak­ers and appre­ci­at­ed the Department’s efforts in fos­ter­ing insight­ful dis­cus­sions.

The first day of the con­fer­ence, Jan­u­ary 29, 2025, marked a his­toric mile­stone in the Depart­ment of Eng­lish Lan­guage and Lit­er­a­ture, as two esteemed inter­na­tion­al keynote speak­ers graced the occa­sion: Dr. Men­vin­der Kaur Sar­jit Singh, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Applied Lin­guis­tics at the School of Lan­guages and Phi­los­o­phy, Uni­ver­si­ty Utara Malaysia, and Dr. Reham Hos­ny, an Asso­ciate Fel­low at the Lev­er­hulme Cen­ter for the Future of Intel­li­gence, Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge, UK. The day was par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial, char­ac­ter­ized by thought-pro­vok­ing dis­cus­sions, intel­lec­tu­al depth, and a warm, engag­ing atmos­phere that brought togeth­er a dis­tin­guished gath­er­ing of schol­ars. The event pro­vid­ed a plat­form for explor­ing mod­ern trends in lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture, fos­ter­ing insight­ful dia­logue among the intel­lec­tu­al elite.

Among the dis­tin­guished speak­ers, Dr. Men­vin­der Kaur Sar­jit Singh deliv­ered a com­pelling keynote speech titled Har­ness­ing AI in Applied Lin­guis­tics and ELT: Glob­al Inno­va­tion and Malaysi­a’s Dig­i­tal Future. She skill­ful­ly elu­ci­dat­ed the role of AI in Applied Lin­guis­tics and Eng­lish Lan­guage Teach­ing, offer­ing a com­pre­hen­sive analy­sis of how AI inte­gra­tion has rev­o­lu­tion­ized research and edu­ca­tion on a glob­al scale. Her insight­ful per­spec­tives left a last­ing impact on the audi­ence, set­ting the tone for the rest of the con­fer­ence.

Dr Reham Hos­ny, an Asso­ciate Fel­low at the Lev­er­hulme Cen­ter for the Future of Intel­li­gence, Uni­ver­si­ty of Cam­bridge, UK. Dr. Reham Hos­ny deliv­ered a crit­i­cal and com­pre­hen­sive talk titled Machine and Muse: AI and the Future of Lit­er­ary Cre­ation. She elo­quent­ly elu­ci­dat­ed the chal­lenges of AI-dri­ven lit­er­ary pro­duc­tion, focus­ing on the sym­bi­ot­ic rela­tion­ship between humans and machines in this new era of col­lab­o­ra­tive cre­ativ­i­ty. With artis­tic depth and engag­ing dis­course, she exam­ined how AI has reshaped the lit­er­ary canon and enriched the pos­si­bil­i­ties of lit­er­ary expres­sion. Their pres­ence at the con­fer­ence left a pro­found emo­tion­al and intel­lec­tu­al impact. They wel­comed every­one with such warmth that it felt as if she belonged to this land. May they con­tin­ue to share their wis­dom, and may she be cher­ished and cel­e­brat­ed every­where.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, I missed a sig­nif­i­cant moment—I was unable to attend the live ses­sion of Dr. Fati­ma Sye­da, Pro­fes­sor and Chair­per­son of the Depart­ment of Eng­lish at For­man Chris­t­ian Col­lege Uni­ver­si­ty, Lahore. I had often heard echoes of her rad­i­cal ideas through the lec­tures of my teach­ers, and I deeply regret­ted not being present for her talk. How­ev­er, I was able to catch up through the con­fer­ence book, where I found that her agen­da focused on Embrac­ing the Dig­i­tal: Delib­er­a­tions in Lit­er­ary Stud­ies. Her research debate high­light­ed a cru­cial ques­tion: Can the intu­itive abil­i­ty required to cre­ate, read, or ana­lyze a text be reduced to an algo­rithm or com­pu­ta­tion­al pro­gram­ming? Her dis­cus­sion was both crit­i­cal and thought-pro­vok­ing, rep­re­sent­ing the loom­ing clash between tech­nol­o­gy and human­i­ty. The lat­er part of her debate explored a press­ing con­cern: What if humans are even­tu­al­ly replaced by machines and chat­bots? Her insights were pro­found, chal­leng­ing the audi­ence to reflect on the evolv­ing rela­tion­ship between arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and lit­er­ary stud­ies.

In addi­tion to the keynote speech­es, the first day was enriched with a pan­el dis­cus­sion and nine par­al­lel ses­sions. The ses­sion chairs presided over the dis­cus­sions, while pan­el ana­lysts shared their insights on The Teach­ing of Eng­lish in the Age of AI. The pan­elists includ­ed Dr. Humaira Irfan, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Edu­ca­tion, Lahore; Dr. Badri­ha Khaleel, Head of the Applied Lin­guis­tics Depart­ment at Kin­naird Col­lege for Women; Dr. Zahi­da Man­soor, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor at the Nation­al Uni­ver­si­ty of Com­put­er and Emerg­ing Sci­ences, Lahore; and Dr. Umar Azeem from Gov­ern­ment Grad­u­ate Col­lege, Town­ship, Lahore. The ses­sion was expert­ly mod­er­at­ed by Dr. Taba­sum Saba, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lahore. It was an engag­ing and thought-pro­vok­ing dis­cus­sion, where the pan­elists offered crit­i­cal insights into the role of AI in Eng­lish lan­guage teach­ing in con­tem­po­rary times. Their per­spec­tives sparked mean­ing­ful dia­logue, shed­ding light on both the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges that AI presents in the field of edu­ca­tion.

The sec­ond day was also a sig­nif­i­cant land­mark, as dis­tin­guished keynote speak­ers graced the event with their intel­lec­tu­al and impact­ful dis­cus­sions on var­i­ous issues relat­ed to AI in con­tem­po­rary times. Among them was Dr. Nadia Anwar, Dean of the School of Lib­er­al Arts, Chair­per­son of Lin­guis­tics and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, and Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of Eng­lish and Lit­er­ary Stud­ies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Man­age­ment and Tech­nol­o­gy, Lahore. I was for­tu­nate to wit­ness a tru­ly remark­able moment when my men­tor and super­vi­sor took the stage at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lahore. I had heard much about her before that day. Com­ing from a remote area of Pun­jab, Man­di Bahaud­din, I often recalled how my torch­bear­er, men­tor, and eter­nal guide—both in my stu­dent and teach­ing life—spoke of her with great rev­er­ence in his lec­tures. She was none oth­er than the esteemed Dr. Nadia Anwar. I will nev­er for­get her artis­tic Three Cs in the con­text of The Death of Author: The AI Conun­drum. With a cap­ti­vat­ing pres­ence, she engaged the audi­ence in a dis­cus­sion rem­i­nis­cent of Roland Barthes’ The Death of the Author, yet with a unique focus on The AI Conun­drum. She deliv­ered a schol­ar­ly and thought-pro­vok­ing debate on the eth­i­cal use of AI, illu­mi­nat­ing its impli­ca­tions with well-researched and ortho­dox ref­er­ences. Her dis­course ignit­ed an intel­lec­tu­al spark as she elo­quent­ly explored the var­i­ous dimen­sions of AI and its impact on the future of lit­er­ary cre­ation.

Anoth­er great intel­lec­tu­al and the last key note speak­er of day2 was Dr. Shafaat Yar Khan retired pro­fes­sor from High­er Edu­ca­tion Com­mis­sion of Pak­istan spoke about the declin­ing intake into lit­er­a­ture depart­ments and point­ed out that lack of align­ment with mar­ket and indus­tries had result­ed in this dec­i­mal sit­u­a­tion. Dig­i­tal rev­o­lu­tion and advent of AI have sig­nif­i­cant sig­nif­i­cant­ly change the exer­cise of lit­er­ary aca­d­e­m­ic and research skills. He rec­om­mend­ed the inclu­sion of new mar­ketable skills in lit­er­ary ped­a­gogy so that stu­dents are able to use lit­er­ary skills and research for the require­ments of the new world. His talk opened dif­fer­ent win­dows of mind about the use of AI and lit­er­a­ture in the par­a­digm of dig­i­tal rev­o­lu­tion.

The sec­ond and the last day of the Con­fer­ence was packed with Keynote address­ing and Penal dis­cus­sions. On 2^nd day the pan­elists were much like the Uni­ver­si­ty Wits of the past, these mod­ern schol­ars includ­ed Dr.Asad Habib Asso­ciate pro­fes­sor depart­ment of Eng­lish Lan­guage and Lit­er­a­ture, Uni­ver­si­ty of Lahore, Dr. Muham­mad Abdul­lah, Assis­tant pro­fes­sor, Gov­ern­ment Col­lege Uni­ver­si­ty Lahore, Dr. Saqib Mah­mood Asso­ciate pro­fes­sor, depart­ment of Eng­lish lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture uni­ver­si­ty of Lahore, and  Dr. Bushra Sid­dique, Chair­per­son depart­ment of lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture uni­ver­si­ty of Man­age­ment and Tech­nol­o­gy Lahore. The penal dis­cus­sion was skill­ful­ly and ener­get­i­cal­ly mod­er­at­ed by Dr. Humaira Sharif Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor Depart­ment of Eng­lish Lan­guage and Lit­er­a­ture, Uni­ver­si­ty of Lahore The thought-pro­vok­ing and heart­felt dis­cus­sions dur­ing the pan­el ses­sion reflect­ed deep crit­i­cal and log­i­cal insights on the top­ic Teach­ing of Eng­lish in the Age of AI. The pan­elist par­tic­u­lar­ly Dr. Abdul­lah humor­ous­ly talked about AI in mod­ern times.

As a ses­sion chair, I thor­ough­ly enjoyed the intel­lec­tu­al dis­course, par­tic­u­lar­ly the crit­i­cal insights pre­sent­ed by inter­na­tion­al schol­ars dur­ing my online ses­sion. The ses­sion fea­tured dis­tin­guished inter­na­tion­al pre­sen­ters who explored a range of thought-pro­vok­ing top­ics. Feheemud­din Sheikh from Malaysia deliv­ered a heart­felt pre­sen­ta­tion on Mag­i­cal Real­ism in Bano Qudsia’s Nov­el “Raja Gidh.” Miss Iram Khalil artis­ti­cal­ly delved into the field of Dig­i­tal Human­i­ties with her insight­ful talk on the leg­endary text Par­adise Lost, high­light­ing a Voy­ant Analy­sis of the Five Speech­es of Satan. Hadia Zafar from Anglia Ruskin Uni­ver­si­ty dis­cussed The Dig­i­tal Self: The Impact of Tech­nol­o­gy in Reshap­ing Human Iden­ti­ty and Social Inter­ac­tion. Chibu­zo Nathial Nwoko from Nige­ria explored Dig­i­tal Mul­ti­modal Meth­ods and Their Effect on Teach­ing Eng­lish as a Sec­ond Lan­guage in Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion. Tayy­i­ba Ash­faq, a PhD schol­ar from Fati­ma Jin­nah Uni­ver­si­ty, debat­ed Eco­crit­i­cism in “Laila in the Wilder­ness.” Last­ly, Faisal Nazir from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Karachi pre­sent­ed The Impas­sioned Expres­sion: Poet­ry in the Age of AI.

Each pre­sen­ter offered a com­pelling and explic­it reflec­tion on emerg­ing issues with­in their respec­tive fields. As the ses­sion chair, I found the expe­ri­ence incred­i­bly enrich­ing, as it pro­vid­ed deep insights into con­tem­po­rary research trends. It was tru­ly a won­der­ful and mem­o­rable experience—one that I would proud­ly call a “Sight to Remem­ber at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Lahore.

Human­i­ty and humil­i­ty are the essence of mankind, and I was for­tu­nate to wit­ness both in Dr. Zahid. Amidst the crowd, he stood out as a gra­cious host, hon­our­ing the del­e­ga­tion led by Nasir Iqbal from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Narow­al and extend­ing the same warmth to me and my stu­dents from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chenab, Gujrat. It was mes­mer­iz­ing to see his unwa­ver­ing ener­gy, punc­tu­al­i­ty, and sharp, obser­vant gaze as he ensured that every guest felt val­ued.

Last­ly, indeed, such events define the iden­ti­ty of an insti­tu­tion, and DELL exe­cut­ed it mas­ter­ful­ly with­in just two days. It orches­trat­ed 19 par­al­lel ses­sions, two online ses­sions, keynote address­es, and pan­el dis­cus­sions an extra­or­di­nary feat. Hats off to the team and to the cap­tain of the ship, who sin­gle-hand­ed­ly nav­i­gat­ed this remark­able event. Long live, DELL-UOL and the team!

Muham­mad Adnan Guj­jar

Muham­mad Adnan Guj­jar is a full-time lec­tur­er in the Depart­ment of Eng­lish Lan­guage and Lit­er­a­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Chenab, Gujrat. He is a poet, colum­nist, and the founder of a lit­er­ary mag­a­zine, The Word­smith E‑Magazine. Cur­rent­ly, he is work­ing on the 4^th edi­tion of the mag­a­zine.