The institutes were established by the Government of India through the Ministry of Human Resource Development 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 Act, 2010. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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 is a historian, mathematician, and Sanskrit scholar, interested in the development of Vakya system of astronomy, particularly the Kerala school of astronomy and mathematics. 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. Dr. Chaitra Redkar works on Gandhian Studies, Gender Studies, and Political Science. She has authored books and essays on Sane Guruji and J.C. Kumarappa. Dr. Pooja Sancheti 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 is interested in Environmental justice, Political ecology, Environment and development studies, Media studies, Memory studies, Oral history, and Climate justice. She is a trustee of the Remember Bhopal Museum & Trust.https://rememberbhopal.net/ Dr. Pushkar Sohoni 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. Pushkar Sohoni often speaks at public events, and has led heritage walks. He has written books on the architectural and cultural history of the Deccan. Dr. has extensively published in the areas of development and environmental sustainability. 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. , Dr. Meera Nanda, and Anil Zankar. Dr. taught here from 2014 to 2017. Dr. John Mathew was a faculty member between 2014 and 2018, and among other research and teaching responsibilities, he wrote, directed, and produced a musical drama in 2017 called .
