American College/SCILET, Madurai

Madurai , the second largest city in Tamil Nadu, Southern India, with over 1 million inhabitants, is packed with pilgrims, beggars, business people, bullock carts, cows, elephants and rickshaw drivers. Situated on the banks of the river Vaigai, Madurai has a rich cultural heritage passed on from the Tamil era more than 2,500 years ago. It is one of South India's oldest cities and has been a center of learning and pilgrimage for centuries. A textile center from way back, the city was also the setting for Mahatma Gandhi's decision, in 1921, to wear nothing but khadi (homespun cloth), and tailors' shops are everywhere in town. But Madurai is especially famous for the awe-inspiring Sri Meenakshi Temple complex, a riotously baroque example of Dravidian architecture with gopuramscovered from top to bottom in a profusion of multicolored images of gods, goddesses, animals and mythical figures.
For those students who would like to experience some of India's metropolises, Chennai and Bangalore can be easily reached by train. For a change, the beaches of Kerala (“God's own country”) are worthwhile visiting. 

The American Collegeat Madurai, located close to the city center, was founded in 1881 by American Christian missionaries and is one of the oldest colleges present in India. There are 13 undergraduate and 12 postgraduate programs of study in the college, with seven of these departments actively engaged in research. In addition to the usual programs in the humanities and sciences, the college offers courses in Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Microbiology, Computer Science, Business Administration and Social Work. The department of Religion, Philosophy and Sociology contains in itself a rare combination of subjects seldom found elsewhere. Besides, innovative courses such as Gender Studies, Dalit Studies, Folk Arts, or Epigraphy are offered under the appropriate major programmes.

Part of the college is the Study Center for Indian Literature in English and Translation (SCILET) . During the last two decades SCILET has attempted to develop a library which includes the best English poetry, drama, fiction and prose produced by almost a thousand resident and expatriate Indian authors, together with English medium journals and important critical books from India and overseas in order to show how important Indian Literature in English had already become. New literatures in English have sprung up in many parts of the world, and India is one of the major places where this is happening.