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"Social Studies at Krea University has a well rounded curriculum that allows students to delve into diverse subjects ranging from economics and history to politics, literature, and the arts. The faculty is accommodating and well versed in their respective fields, ensuring an environment where learning thrives, through lectures and discussions that are extremely insightful and engaging. Studying Social Studies at Krea has been a truly transformative experience that has broadened my perspectives.”

Nirva Shah

Cohort of 2024
“In the future, I hope to use the interdisciplinary education I have gained to pursue a career in fields such as development, policy, or international relations.”

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Sociology & Social Anthropology at Krea

Sociology and Social Anthropology offer an interdisciplinary Major that upholds the twin promises of modern social theory: to understand the nature of social realities and to intervene in the world to make it a better place. Our focus is to study society by deconstructing it into several concepts and frameworks. The intellectual and moral imperatives of studying the social are realised by providing an interwoven umbrella that accommodates multiple perspectives. The Sociology and Social Anthropology Major investigates the systemic and structural on one hand, and the experiential and everyday on the other.

To navigate the individual-collective binary, the programme unfolds through a state-market-community triad, which examines theories, practices, institutions, and agencies. This triad captures the way the social fabric weaves its constituent elements—namely the political, economic, historical, technological, cultural, and environmental realities. Consequently, to study the interactions between land, communities, and the environment, we draw from Human Geography and Ecological Studies. We engage with Critical Race and Ethnic Studies to explore the formation and functioning of racial, ethnic, national, and diasporic identities. Global Studies alerts us to both the production of inequities and the radical possibilities within globalisation processes. Science and Technology Studies inquire into the nature of scientific research and technological innovation, along with their impact on society and polity. Finally, Urban Studies focuses on the rapid global urbanisation and its ecological and social consequences.

The Approach

Sociology and Social Anthropology offer a number of required and elective courses that respond to a wide variety of perspectives and dimensions that we champion. These courses range from social thoughts to empiricism, ethnography to big data analyses, science and technology to gender relations, critique of development to the emergence of neoliberal cities, migration studies to economy and poverty, to name a few. Required courses like Introduction to the Sociological and Anthropological Thought and Research Methodology for example, are aimed at offering foundational epistemic knowledge. Several electives draw upon this foundational knowledge to provide more focussed and advanced insight into a wide range of contrasting social realities.

The programme also enables students to write a Capstone thesis at the final phase of the Major. The Capstone thesis offers an opportunity for the students to showcase their conceptual and research skills based on field immersions, data gathering and analyses. Faculty from across the three divisions of SIAS come together to teach courses in this Major.

Programme Details

With the introduction of the Four-Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP), students can opt for a Single Major, a Double Major or a Minor. The break-up of credit requirements for each are as follows:

Single Major requires 80 credits, of which ten are required courses (40 credits) and ten electives (40 credits).

Double Major requires 64 credits of which 10 are required courses (36 credits) and six electives (28 credits).

Minor requires 32 credits of which four are required courses (16 credits) and four electives (16 credits).

Credit requirement for students registered for the earlier three-year undergraduate programme (Old Curriculum). [For those who wish to continue with it without transitioning to the new four year programme]:

Single Major requires 60 credits, of which nine are required courses (36 credits) and six electives (24 credits).

Double Major requires 48 credits of which eight are required courses (32 credits) and four electives (16 credits).

Minor requires 24 credits of which four are required courses (16 credits) and 2 electives (8 credits).

** Please note that some old courses continue under new titles but retain their original course codes, while others have been replaced with new ones. Students continuing with the old programme must take the required and elective courses from the current list and can choose alternative courses in place of those that have been dropped. As long as they meet the required number of credits, they will fulfil the programme requirements.

Graduation Requirements (Under the New Curriculum) 

Credit Requirements for the 3-Year Programme 

Single Major requires 60 credits, of which nine are required courses (36 credits) and six electives (24 credits).

The nine Required Courses include:

  1. Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
  2. Introduction to Political Anthropology
  3. Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
  4. Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
  5. Economy and Society
  6. Introduction to Feminist Theory
  7. Communities and Identities in India
  8. Kinship and Family
  9. Religion and society / Caste and Tribes in Contemporary India

Double Major requires 48 credits of which eight required courses (32 credits) and four electives (16 credits). To earn a Double Major, the eight required courses must be: 

  1. Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
  2. Introduction to Political Anthropology
  3. Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
  4. Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
  5. Economy and Society
  6. Introduction to Feminist Theory
  7. Kinship and Family
  8. Communities and Identities in India or Religion and Society or Caste and Tribes in Contemporary India

Minor requires twenty four credits of which four are required courses (16 credits) and two electives (8 credits). To earn a Concentration the four required courses are: 

  1. Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
  2. Introduction to Political Anthropology / Economy and Society or Kinship and Family
  3. Introduction to Feminist Theory / Caste, Community and Identity / Religion and Society / Communities and Identities in India
  4. Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method / Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods

Credit Requirements for the 4-Year Programme

Single Major requires 80 credits, of which ten are required courses (40 credits) and ten electives (40 credits).

The nine required courses include: 

  1. Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
  2. Introduction to Political Anthropology
  3. Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
  4. Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
  5. Economy and Society
  6. Introduction to Feminist Theory
  7. Communities and Identities in India
  8. Kinship and Family
  9. Religion and society
  10. Caste and Tribes in Contemporary India

Double Major requires 64 credits of which nine are required courses (36 credits) and seven electives (28 credits). 

The nine Required Courses include:

  1. Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
  2. Introduction to Political Anthropology
  3. Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
  4. Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
  5. Economy and Society
  6. Introduction to Feminist Theory
  7. Communities and Identities in India
  8. Kinship and Family 
  9. Religion and society / Castes and Tribes in Contemporary India

Minor requires 32 credits of which four required courses (16 credits) and 4 electives (16 credits): 

  1. Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
  2. Introduction to Political Anthropology / Economy and Society or Kinship and Family
  3. Introduction to Feminist Theory / Communities and Identities in India or Religion and Society
  4. Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method / Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods

The electives housed within the Discipline include:

  1. Anthropology of Violence: State, Power and Politics
  2. Media and the Public
  3. Development. People. Power
  4. Work, Labour and Precarity
  5. Caste, Community, Coloniality: From Victimhood to Political Responsibility
  6. Gender, Masculinity and the Languages of Grief
  7. Understanding Propaganda
  8. Sociology of Law

 

Students Speak

I majored in Social Studies at SIAS, Krea University. After taking Sociology at A-Level in school, I felt as though I simply had to know more about what seemed like drawing back the curtain from the world we see at face value and looking beyond the magician's trick. The major never actually felt like studying to me (not like the compulsory Maths class did!). It felt like I was constantly uncovering new facts about everything I had taken for granted, leaving me both amazed and disgusted in equal measure.

From learning how easily fascism can take root in democracies, to the forgotten heroes of the Indian freedom movement, to the diversity of life in the Global South, and how social locations like caste influence everything from food recipes to lifespans, to our interconnectedness with other species – each successive course revealed new avenues of further study. That’s not to say it wasn’t challenging: there were endless readings, lengthy essays, and tough grading rubrics. But if you’re curious about the world around you, this major will show you just how many things you don’t know that you don’t know! I highly recommend Social Studies as a discipline, even if you only take a few courses. It certainly changed the way I view the world.

As for the future – I’m starting my MSc in Public Policy and Administration at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) this year. My interdisciplinary undergraduate degree helped me focus my professional aspirations on climate adaptation policy, which I intend to pursue thereafter.
Amrita RudraSIAS Cohort of 2023
Amrita Rudra
​

Krea University