Calcutta is all set to host a team of over 40 scholars, writers, performers and artists from Australia in the second week of February. They will be here to attend the international conference on Globalisation and Post-colonial Writing: An Australia-India Exchange.

Organised jointly by the department of English, Calcutta University, and The Centre for Postcolonial Writing, Monash University, Melbourne, the three-day conference will be part of the 150th foundation day celebrations of Calcutta University.

On February 7, 8 and 9, discussions will be held on the Alipore campus of the university on Australian literature and culture, postcolonial writing, Indian Writing in English, gender and literature, cross-cultural literature and cultural representations.

There is to be equal representation from both countries. If the Australian panellists range from Bill Ashcroft, Peter Goldsworthy, Jennifer Strauss, David Carter, Philip Darby and Stephen Muecke, there will be the likes of Shashi Deshpande, Githa Hariharan, Ashish Nundy, Dipesh Chakravorty, Bharati Ray, Santosh Sareen and Malashri Lal, to take up the Indian counterpoint.

The conference hopes to promote cross-cultural research and the construction of an information database on Australian literature and culture for students and researchers. The discussions will be interspersed with performances and possibly an art show.

There are quite a few to watch out for among the Australian delegates. There will be Peter Goldsworthy, winner of an array of music and literary awards, including the Commonwealth poetry prize.

Eva Salis is also an award-winning novelist with titles like Hiam, Mahjar and The Marsh Birds. Peter Snow, besides heading the School of English Communication and Performance Studies, is a professional theatre artist performing across Europe, Asia and Australia.

Then there is dancer Teresa De Quincey who visited Calcutta not too long ago.