About the department

The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) houses the disciplines of English Literature, Linguistics, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, CISTS (Sanskrit) and History with a strength of Thirty-Nine faculty members at the present. We hope to expand by incorporating other discipline like Political Science in the near future. The Department commands an independent space within the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay by offering MA-PhD programme in Philosophy and a Ph.D. Programme in all of disciplines currently constituting it. From Autumn semester of 2022, the department has launched MA by Research programme in Sociology/Language, Literature and Performance studies/ Human Sciences. The Ph.D. Programme of the Department has been running since 1973 and the M.Phil. program was initiated in 1993 but is being officially closed down and the last batch will graduate in June 2023.

Academic Programme: As mentioned above 2 years M.Phil in Planning & Development (last batch passes out in 2023), MA-PhD programme in Philosophy, and a Ph.D. Programme in all of disciplines currently constituting it. From Autumn semester of 2022, the department has launched MA by Research programme in Sociology/Language, Literature and Performance studies/ Human Sciences.

The Department, apart from the production and dissemination of its disciplinary concerns, also plays a unique and distinctive role within the vision of the Institute, which seeks to promote a holistic science and technology education. The inclusion of the study of the Humanities and other social and behavioural sciences ensures that our quest within the frontiers of the science and technology takes place in an informed manner and attends to humanitarian and social concerns. Towards this end, the Department offers a number of core and elective courses for the B. Tech., M. Tech., and the MBA Programmes of the Institute.

 Apart from the facilities made available to all students at the Institute-level, at the department-level, the students have access to the resources available in the Department’s Library, Computer Labs and the newly established Econometrics Lab. The Department also has Psychology Laboratories. For the fulfilment of its teaching and research goals, the Department has competent faculty members in diverse areas, who keep pace with the current developments in their fields of specialization.

R&D Activities: The department faculties are involved in a number of research projects independently, in collaboration with faculty members from other departments of IIT Bombay, and as part of international research networks and partnerships. Faculty members and student researchers of the department carry out research in several cutting-edge areas and emerging sub disciplines as well as trans-disciplinary themes such as computational linguistics, climate studies, organizational justice, digital media, innovation, gender and environmental change. 

Head Of the Department

Prof.  Pooja Purang

Email: head[dot]hss[at]iitb[dot]ac[dot]in

Contact: (022) 2576 7350