This course is designed to provide graduate students with a broad perspective on classical and modern theoretical perspectives in sociology and social anthropology.

This is a seminar-style course designed to critically interrogate the concept of the state as an object of ethnographic enquiry. The course will attempt to disaggregate the state as a taken-for-granted entity or institution and focus on the multiple ways in which the state can be realized as an idea or ‘effect’.

A critical examination of the the planning and development processes in India from multiple disciplinary perspectives.

The course will familiarize students with contemporary conceptual understandings of gender and its relationship with other dimensions of human social life. It will explore the relationship between ‘sex’ and gender and focus on the socio-cultural processes that produce gendered identities in time and space. It will further examine the relationship of gender and gendered identities with work and economy, family, kinship, reproduction, marriage, religion and the political sphere.

This course seeks to critically examine the historical development of capitalism in the context of the advanced industrial and developing societies. It discusses how capitalism as a mode of production has restructured itself over the centuries. Specifically, it discusses the various theories of capitalism and the processes of transformation from classical industrial capitalism to contemporary neo-liberalism.

This course introduces students to classical and contemporary theories and debates in Indian sociology including the various concepts and approaches used to study Indian society. It provides a historical overview of Indian society from colonial times to the present, focusing on processes and drivers of social change.

To introduce students to current and ongoing debates on challenges posed by various aspects of globalization and debates therein. Globalization is impacting our everyday life and this course enables us to understand how social-cultural, political and economic aspects of globalization interact and are shaping the emergent world.

This course will examine how civil society or associational community interacts with the state and the market in India and what implications has it had for the broader processes and institutions of democracy, citizenship and governance.

This course will introduce students to interdisciplinary perspectives on agriculture and rural development across the world using historical and contemporary sources.