Prof Fakrul Alam, Bangabandhu chair of the Department of History, University of Dhaka, has recently joined the Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) as honorary advisor to its Department of English and Modern Languages and the Sasheen Center for Multilingual Excellence.
He will advise the department and the center on academic program development, enhancing research strength, and designing workshops, seminars, conferences and other scholarly activities.
Prof Alam, who taught in the Department of English of the University of Dhaka (DU) for over four decades, translated Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s prison diaries, Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali, and Jibanananda Das’s poetry, and co-edited with Radha Chakravarti The Essential Tagore.
After his retirement, he was a UGC prof and a supernumerary prof at the English Department of DU. He also worked as the director of the Bangabandhu Research Institute of Peace and Liberty, DU. He received the prestigious Bangla Academy Literary Award in Translation in 2013 and the SAARC Literary Award in 2012.
Alam completed BA and MA in English at the University of Dhaka, earned a second master's degree from Simon Fraser University, Canada and obtained his PhD degree from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.