"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.”
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
Graduation Requirements
Courses
Faculty
Careers
Graduation Requirements
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 (40 credits) and six electives (24 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 (for those who want 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:
Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
Introduction to Political Anthropology
Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
Economy and Society
Introduction to Feminist Theory
Communities and Identities in India
Kinship and Family
Religion and society or 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:
Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
Introduction to Political Anthropology
Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
Economy and Society
Introduction to Feminist Theory
Kinship and Family
Communities and Identities in India or Religion and Society or Caste and Tribes in Contemporary India
Minor requires twenty four credits of which are four required courses (16 credits) and two electives (8 credits). To earn a Concentration the four required courses are:
Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
Introduction to Political Anthropology or Economy and Society or Kinship and Family
Introduction to Feminist Theory or Caste, Community and Identity or Religion and Society
Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method or 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:
Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
Introduction to Political Anthropology
Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
Economy and Society
Introduction to Feminist Theory
Communities and Identities in India
Kinship and Family
Religion and society
Caste and Tribes in Contemporary India
Double Major requires 64 credits of which nine required courses (36 credits) and seven electives (28 credits).
The nine Required Courses include:
Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought 2. Introduction to Political Anthropology
Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
Economy and Society
Introduction to Feminist Theory
Communities and Identities in India
Religion and society
Kinship and Family or Castes and Tribes in Contemporary India
Minor requires 32 credits of which four required courses (16 credits) and 4 electives (16 credits):
Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
Introduction to Political Anthropology or Economy and Society or Kinship and Family
Introduction to Feminist Theory or Communities and Identities in India or Religion and Society
Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method or Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
The list of Electives housed within the Discipline include:
Anthropology of Violence: State, Power and Politics
Media and the Public
Development. People. Power
Work, Labour and Precarity
Caste, Community, Coloniality: From Victimhood to Political Responsibility
Gender, Masculinity and the Languages of Grief
Understanding Propaganda
Sociology of Law
Courses
Required Courses
Introduction to Sociological and Anthropological Thought
Introduction to Political Anthropology
Research Methodology: Qualitative Research Method
Research Methodology: Social Quantitative Methods
Economy and Society
Introduction to Feminist Theory
Communities, Identities and Cultures in India
Kinship and Family
Religion and Society
Social Anthropology of Caste
Electives currently housed in Social Studies
Space, Place, Culture
Anthropology of Violence
Media and the Public
Political Economy of Development
Gender, Masculinity and the Languages of Grief
Caste, Community, Coloniality: From Victimhood to Political Responsibility
Understanding Propaganda
Sociology of Law
Possible areas in which electives may be offered in future
Migration, Border Studies
Medical Anthropology, ARTS, Public Health
Social Movements, Dispossession and Social Justice
Demography and Population studies
Urbanization, Land and Cities
Science and Technology
Citizenship and State
Writing Ethnography
Anthropology of Political Emotions
Faculty
Dr Gowhar Fazili
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Social Anthropology Discipline Coordinator for Sociology & Social Anthropology
Dr Gowhar Fazili
Assistant Professor of Sociology & Social Anthropology Discipline Coordinator for Sociology & Social Anthropology
PhD, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi
Dr Panchali Ray
Associate Dean (Academic), Associate Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies
Dr Panchali Ray
Associate Dean (Academic), Associate Professor of Anthropology and Gender Studies
PhD, Jadavpur University
Dr Annu Jalais
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Dr Annu Jalais
Associate Professor of Anthropology
PhD, London School of Economics
Dr Arani Basu
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Humanities & Social Sciences
Dr Arani Basu
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Humanities & Social Sciences
PhD, Humboldt University
Dr Karthik Rao Cavale
Assistant Professor of Political Economy and Urban Studies
Dr Karthik Rao Cavale
Assistant Professor of Political Economy and Urban Studies
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dr Preeti Sampat
Associate Professor of Sociology & Social Anthropology
Dr Preeti Sampat
Associate Professor of Sociology & Social Anthropology
PhD, City University of New York
Dr Sumitra Ranganathan
Associate Professor of Music
Dr Sumitra Ranganathan
Associate Professor of Music
PhD, University of California, Berkeley
Careers
The significance of social sciences training is increasingly being realised in the sectors of industry and government that have otherwise remained aloof from it.
The Krea Social Sciences graduate, apart from imbibing the values of democratic citizenship, armed with a Major in social studies will be ready for many callings including higher studies in social sciences, government work, consulting, and careers in nonprofit institutions, journalism, teaching, and social work.
Job Roles
Organisations
Funds Worker/ Manager
Community Development Officer
Human Resources Officer
Market Researcher
Public Relations Adviser
Policy Analyst
Publishing House
Media Company
Hiring Company/ Department
Think Tank
Legal Firm
Counselling Agency
Environment Agency
Corporate CSR
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.
