Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Pune

Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (IISER Pune) is a research and teaching department within the institute, along with Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Climate Sciences, Mathematics, and Physics.[2] The faculty members of HSS offer courses and conduct research in fundamental humanities and social sciences disciplines and interdisciplinary areas that cut across different social and natural sciences.[3]

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune
TypePublic research institute
Established2006 (2006)
DirectorJayant B. Udgaonkar[1]
Chair, Humanities and Social SciencesPushkar Sohoni
Location
Pune
,
Maharashtra
,
India
Websitewww.iiserpune.ac.in/research/humanities-and-social-sciences

Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research

The institutes were established by the Government of India through the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to provide quality collegiate education in basic sciences coupled with cutting-edge research at the undergraduate level. The institutes were formally established by the Parliament of India through the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Act, 2010 (an amendment to the National Institutes of Technology Act, 2007).[4][5]
IISER Pune and IISER Kolkata were the first such institutes inaugurated in 2006, with Dr. Krishna N. Ganesh as the first director of IISER Pune.[6] The institute started with the departments of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics. Humanities and Social Sciences was introduced in 2013 as a full department, along with Earth and Climate Sciences.[7]

Humanities and Social Sciences, IISER Pune

Initially, the department was a service department in the mission of the institute, to prevent the cultivation of two cultures as expounded by C.P. Snow. However, since 2016, it has had the mandate of being an independent and equal research department, initially under Dr. L. S. Shashidhara, who was the first chair.[8] The department grew from two visiting faculty members in 2014 to six regular and two visiting faculty members in 2020. From 2018, the doctoral programme in Humanities and Social Sciences commenced.[9]

Academic Programmes

The department is engaged in all the academic programmes within IISER, such as the BSMS, iPhD, and PhD. In addition, the department is involved with several activities across the city and beyond.[10][11]
BSMS All the BSMS students are required to take core HSS courses, and can opt for elective course offerings beyond. Most courses are open to all students unless there are specific prerequisites.
PhD The doctoral programme is in compliance with the rules of IISER Pune, but with additional departmental requirements. Students are admitted on the basis of their research proposals and qualifications, among other requirements.[12]

Faculty Research Interests

The faculty members have varied interests across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, that include Contemporary English Fiction, Indian Writing in English, History of Ideas, Modern Indian Political Thought, Gandhian Studies, Gender and Indian Politics, Social Movements and Indian Politics, Development Studies, Environmental Sustainability, Development Economics, Environmental Sociology, Political Ecology, Social Transformation, Urbanization, Sociology of Climate Change, Disaster and Development, Environmental Justice, Memory Studies, Gender Studies, Social Sciences Research Methods and Ethics, Experiential Learning, History of Architecture, History of Art, Archaeology, Material Culture, Epigraphy, English Literature, Literary Theory, Diaspora Literature, Political Theory, Political Philosophy.

Faculty

The regular faculty members in the department are Dr. R. Venketeswara Pai, Dr. Chaitra Redkar, Dr. Pooja Sancheti, Dr. Shalini Sharma, Dr. Pushkar Sohoni, Dr. Bejoy Thomas.

Dr. R. Venketeswara Pai (Ph.D. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, 2011) is a historian, mathematician, and Sanskrit scholar, interested in the development of Vakya system of astronomy, particularly the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics.[13] He works with Sanskrit and Malayalam source material. Dr. Pai also has research interests in Sanskrit grammar, particularly Panini. He has co-authored a book on the Karanapaddhati.[14]

Dr. Chaitra Redkar (Ph.D. University of Pune, 2013) works on Gandhian Studies, Gender Studies, and Political Science.[15] She has authored books and essays on Sane Guruji and J.C. Kumarappa.[16]

Dr. Pooja Sancheti (Ph.D. English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), 2014) works on Postmodernist fiction, Magical Realism, Myth, and English Language Teaching. Her research interests include diaspora literature, feminist writing, and Indian English literature.

Dr. Shalini Sharma (Ph.D. School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), 2014) is interested in Environmental justice, Political ecology, Environment and development studies, Media studies, Memory studies, Oral history, and Climate justice.[17] She is a trustee of the Remember Bhopal Museum & Trust.https://rememberbhopal.net/

Dr. Pushkar Sohoni (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 2010) is an architect, an architectural and cultural historian. He has been active in documenting the history of Pune city, including a recent collaboration with Sahapedia on the Pune Cultural Mapping Project.[18] Pushkar Sohoni often speaks at public events, and has led heritage walks.[19][20][21][22][23] He has written books on the architectural and cultural history of the Deccan.[24][25][26]

Dr. Bejoy Thomas (Ph.D. Tilburg University, 2009) has extensively published in the areas of development and environmental sustainability.[27] His early research was on multidimensional poverty and participatory development. Subsequently he began working on water resources management in close collaboration with engineers and environmental scientists.

Visiting and Past Faculty

In the past, several eminent scholars have been visiting faculty members here, such as Dr. K.P. Mohanan (2012-), Dr. Meera Nanda (2019-20), and Anil Zankar (2017-). Dr. Aditi Deo (now at Ahmedabad University) taught here from 2014 to 2017. Dr. John Mathew (now at KREA University) was a faculty member between 2014 and 2018,[28] and among other research and teaching responsibilities, he wrote, directed, and produced a musical drama in 2017 called The Sun was White, the Moon Disobedient.

gollark: Which means accurately made lenses and stuff too, I guess?
gollark: I also had the idea of Discworld-style semaphore-tower networks driven by magical systems instead of human operators, but that would probably also be too complex to implement.
gollark: I see. It's kind of hard trying to figure out what sort of modern stuff would work in a world where most of the stuff we kind of assume exists doesn't.
gollark: I was reading the telegraph thing, and wondering if they could practically do radio, or if that would need too much power or electronics knowledge/capability.
gollark: Maybe they need Morey *and* Cato?

References
  1. "Director". www.iiserpune.ac.in. IISER Pune. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  2. "Departments". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  3. "Humanities and Social Sciences". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  4. "Rajya Sabha passes to key education bills". Zeenews.india.com. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  5. "THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2013" (PDF). Prsindia.org. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  6. Sathyamurthy, N.; Bandopadhyay, R. (2018). Institution Building: The Story of the IISERs (1st ed.). Delhi: Indian Academy of Sciences. p. 48.
  7. Sathyamurthy, N.; Bandopadhyay, R. (2018). Institution Building: The Story of the IISERs (1st ed.). Delhi: Indian Academy of Sciences. p. 54.
  8. Express News Service (10 May 2016). "IISER to merge scientific research with humanities". Indian Express. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  9. Marar, Anjali (20 January 2018). "From next academic year, IISER Pune to start PhD programmes in six subjects for foreign students". Indian Express. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  10. Dutta, Tathagata (12 November 2018). "WWI Martyrs hailed at Khadki cemetery". The Pune Mirror. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  11. "Pyaavs: Drinking Water Fountains of Mumbai". Sahapedia. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
  12. "An Overview of the PhD Programme". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. 5 July 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  13. "Faculty Details". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  14. Pai, Venketeswara; Ramasubramanian, K.; Sriram, M. S.; Srinivas, M. D. (14 March 2018). Karaṇapaddhati of Putumana Somayājī. Springer. ISBN 978-981-10-6814-0.
  15. "Faculty Details". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. 5 July 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  16. Redkar, Chaitra (1 February 2019). Gandhian Engagement with Capital: Perspectives of J C Kumarappa. SAGE Publishing India. ISBN 978-93-5328-229-5.
  17. "Faculty Details". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. 5 July 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  18. "#PuneCulturalMapping | Meet Dr Pushkar Sohoni, Architect, Author, Assistant Professor at IISER Pune". Sahapedia Facebook Page. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  19. Sayeed, Vikhar Ahmed (16 January 2020). "A Story, Less Known". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  20. Marar, Anjali (12 November 2018). "Pune Residents Commemorate Hundred Years of World War !". The Indian Express. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  21. Dutta, Tathagata (12 November 2018). "WWI Martyrs hailed at Khadki cemetery". The Pune Mirror. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  22. "Institute Colloquium". Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  23. "Attend a Talk". Pune Mirror. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  24. Sohoni, Pushkar (2015). Aurangabad with Daulatabad, Khuldabad, and Ahmadnagar. Jaico Publishing House. ISBN 978-81-8495-694-8.
  25. Robbins, Kenneth X.; Sohoni, Pushkar (2017). Jewish Heritage of the Deccan: Mumbai, the Northern Konkan, Pune. Jaico Publishing House. ISBN 978-93-86348-66-1.
  26. Sohoni, Pushkar (30 August 2018). The Architecture of a Deccan Sultanate: Courtly Practice and Royal Authority in Late Medieval India. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-83860-928-3.
  27. "Faculty Details". 5 July 2020. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
  28. Nagarajan, Saraswathy (25 February 2015). "The King and the Playwright". The Hindu. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
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