Prof. A. K. Singh (1960-2019) was an establisher of institutions that are flourishing today. He was the Founder- Head of the Department of English and CLS, Saurashtra University, Rajkot; established the current grand infrastructure of BAOU, Ahmedabad while he was the VC of the same; established Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat; then he moved to the School of Translation Studies and Training, IGNOU, Delhi. His last assignment was as the Provost of AURO University, Surat where he shaped up the Humanities Wing. An internationally renowned scholar of Comparative Literature and Indian Poetics, Dr. Singh was and will be  a living tradition of values, integrity and pursuit of knowledge for all of us associated with the Department of English & CLS at Rajkot.  Dr. Singh had a passion for connecting life with literature and vice versa and he believed in the interdisciplinarity of the domains of knowledge and was a practitioner of आ नो भद्रा: क्रतवो यन्तु विश्वत:, ‘Let noble thoughts come to us from every side.’ Taking an inspiration from his belief and practice of concerted efforts and energy – ‘संगच्छघ्वं संवदघ्वं’ – the Alumni Association of the Department of English & CLS, Saurashtra University has initiated this lecture series.

The first lecture of this series was delivered by Ms. Bijal Vachharajani, award-winning author of Children's Literature. She delivered the talk entitled "Green Lit: The Rising Tide of Eco-conscious Children's Book".The lecture was focused on how environment and climate change is represented in Children's fiction. She also discussed and elaborated on how contemporary mainstream children's books are oriented and committed to enviornmental concerns. The following is the link for YouTube lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0OEtgcw3ik