Download PhD Application Form

Eligibility for Admission

An applicant to the Ph.D programme at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences should meet one of the following requirements:

1) The applicant should have obtained at least 55% marks (50% marks for SC/ST) in M.A. or equivalent degree in Humanities / Social Sciences subjects, OR

2) A First Class or 60% marks (55% marks for SC/ST) in Master’s degree in Science / Commerce / Graduate Degree in Engineering / Technology will be considered for research areas consistent with the academic background and special interests of the applicant, OR

3) An M.Phil. degree in any of the six disciplines (pertaining to the research areas listed below) or in any allied subjects, or an M.Phil. in “Humanities and Social Sciences with specialization in Planning and Development” awarded by IIT Bombay.

A minimum of 2 years of professional work experience for Sponsored or External Category (EX) and Self Financing Category (SF) is mandatory. To be considered for the Institute Teaching Assistantship (TA), the applicant must possess a valid GATE score or have qualified the CSIR/ UGC/ ICSSR/ ICPR/ MET/ an equivalent qualifying examination.

 Research Areas : 

English ­ :- Autumn and Spring Semester 2023: All areas in Literature, Linguistics, Performance Studies and Cinema studies. Applicants are required to submit a Research Proposal along with the application. The format, content and other details needed for the proposal will be available on the H&SS website at URL.

Psychology ­:- Autumn and Spring Semester 2023: Psychological Perspectives and Theory; Organizational Behaviour; Personality Studies; Qualified MBTI user; Organizational Culture and Values; Developmental Neuropsychology; Education and Child Development; Eyewitness Testimony; Cognitive Ergonomics; EEG /Event Related Potential; Working Memory and Prospective Memory and Developmental Dyslexia; Health­ Neurocognitive Psychology; Subjective Well­Being; Ergonomics; Visual Perception; Memory; Attention; Cognitive / Perceptual Load; Response Inhibition; ODD; Decision­Making; Delay Aversion; Perception; Cognition and Emotion; Value­Learning; Reward and Punishment Processing; Consciousness­Unconsciousness; Visual Awareness; Dyslexia; Cognitive Neuroscience; Task Switching; Meditation; Child Development; Cognitive Disorders; ADHD; Autism; Depression; Error Monitoring; Time Perception; Face Processing

Sociology:-  ­ only in Autumn semester 2023 : Urban Studies; Development Studies; Rural/Agrarian Sociology; Law and Governance; Legal Pluralism; Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change; Gender and Development; Disaster Studies; Ethnicity and Multiculturalism;; Sociological Theory; Anthropology of corruption; Constitutional Law; Sociology of Higher Education; Sociology of Religion and Kinship; Conversion; Christianity in India; Caste today; Religious Institutions; Hierarchy/Stratification; Sociology in/of India; Contemporary Karnataka; Sociology of Development and Environment; Natural Resource Conflicts; Issues of Livelihoods and Problems of Marginalized Class; Resource Rights; Subaltern Resistance and Movements and Political Ecology; Sociology and political economy of Finance; Political Economy of Development; Indian Political Economy; Theories of Money; Classical Political Economy; New and Old Institutionalism and History of Economic Thought; Issues of Gender and Sexuality; Medical Anthropology; Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment; Post­Colonial Studies; Post­Modern Feminist Studies and Southern Theories; Caste: Civility and Democracy; Civil Society, Ethnography Studies; Inclusion and Exclusion; Environmental Sociology; Social and Environmental Movements; Environmental Politics with a focus on Social inequality and Natural Resource Conflicts especially in Rural India; Issues of Livelihood and Problems of Marginalized Class and Political Ecology; Science and Technology Studies; Sociology of Medicine and Public Health

 Philosophy:-  ­ Autumn and Spring semester 2023 : Philosophy of Mind, Analytic Philosophy, Classical Indian Philosophy (Buddhism, Sankya and Vedanta), Philosophy of Religion and Comparative Philosophy, Epistemology and Science, Analytic Philosophy, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Continental Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Philosophy of Language Contemporary Indian Philosophy, Existentialism, Phenomenology, Continental Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Twentieth Century Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind, Cognitive Science, Wittgenstein, Alfred Korzybski, Philosophy and Popular Culture, Ethics, Ethics and Social­Political Philosophy, Feminist Philosophies, American philosophy, Continental philosophy, 20th Century Continental Philosophy: Heidegger, Foucault, Husserl, Gadamer, Phenomenology and Hermeneutics, Epistemology: Implications of the Historicity of Knowledge for its Universal Validity, Metaphysics: Implications of an Ontology of Events for Political Philosophy, History of Western Philosophy, Classical Indian Philosophy, Philosophical hermeneutics of Abhinavagupta, Indian Philosophy of Language, Indian Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art

Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit ­­ Autumn and Spring semester 2023 :-

Indian Science and Technology; Indian Philosophy; Logic and Epistemology; Sanskrit language; Panini and Grammar; Philosophy of Language.

History ­ Autumn and Spring semester 2023: Archeology :- 

Modern History- Subaltern history, migration history, maritime history and histories of anticolonialism and decolonization.