HUMANITIES AND LANGUAGES
What are the conditions and training that produce innovative and resourceful individuals? Or to put the question another way: what constitutes a good education? The growing response to this enquiry, particularly amongst pioneers in the business world, is one that emphasises the need for holistic development. Indeed, industry today increasingly relishes the vitality of the liberal arts and the creative power of a broad grounding in the Humanities. These domains impart the adaptability, critical outlook and independence of analysis that flourish among the exigencies of professional life in a changing world.
Rather than telling you what to think, a good university should aim to teach you how to think – and how to question, innovate and deliver.
The Humanities form the bedrock of most global traditions of learning. These fields engage with the horizons of meaningful activity, complex experience and emotional depth, and have traditionally been composed of subjects such as Ethics, History, Geography, Classical and Modern Languages, Literature, Logic, Philology and Philosophy.
Academics
Programmes
The Humanities and Languages division currently comprises two Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree programmes with 11 faculty members and a diverse set of students. We put an emphasis on communication skills, both written and verbal. Our ambition is to integrate the Humanities into Ahmedabad University at every level by creating elective courses for students across all academic areas.
The Humanities explore what it means to be human, what this has meant historically, and what it may mean in the future. Students and faculty in the Division investigate questions that are grounded in specific disciplines such as History and Philosophy and, in addition, share a common concern for interdisciplinary questions that are studied across different languages. This commitment is displayed not only in the degree programmes but also in lecture and seminar series offered by the Division on diverse themes across the Humanities.
The Division teaches courses that range from areas such as global history, Greek philosophy, and musicology. Our Bachelor of Arts (Honours) programmes offer remarkable opportunities for students to advance their knowledge. This is facilitated through a flexible curriculum that enables students to engage with multiple areas of study.
We welcome enquiries from prospective students, prospective visitors, and those intellectually curious about the Humanities. For more information on the two current Bachelor of Arts (Honours) programmes, follow the links below:
Admissions
Education at Ahmedabad University offers intellectual rigour, deep focus on research, unique opportunities for academic collaboration and creative momentum. As new students, you join a vibrant, talented community committed to academic excellence and personal growth.
To know more details about admissions, please visit our admissions webpage.
People
The People
Faculty
PhD and Post Doctoral Fellows
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Kunal Basu
Distinguished Professor of Humanities
PhD (University of Florida)
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Sudeep Chakravarti
Executive Director, Stepwell Centre for Asian Futures; Professor of Practice; and Chair, Communication Programme
BA (Honours), St Stephen's College (Delhi University)
Research Interests: Foreign Policy, South Asian Affairs, Indian Ocean Affairs, Geo-economics, Internal Security, Intersection of Democracy and Development, Northeast India, Eastern South Asia, Intersection of Business and Human Rights
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Aditya Chaturvedi
Assistant Professor
PhD (Emory University)
Research Interests: Indian Intellectual History of the late Second Millennium (Vaiṣṇava Vedānta, Puṣṭimārga), Religious Studies, Bhakti Studies, Tantra, and South Asian Art History
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Manomohini Dutta
Assistant Professor
PhD (University of Texas at Austin)
Research Interests: Pre-Modern Indian History, Law and Religion, Hindu Legal Traditions and Sanskrit.
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Maya Jasanoff
Visiting Professor
PhD (Yale University)
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Murari Kumar Jha
Assistant Professor
PhD (Leiden University)
Research Interests: Economy, Empire, Institutions, River, Indian Ocean, Environmental Changes
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Apaar Kumar
Associate Professor
PhD (Emory University)
Research Interests: History of Modern Philosophy (especially Kant), Hermeneutics and Phenomenology, Ethics
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Aparajith Ramnath
Associate Professor
PhD (Imperial College London)
Research Interests: History of science and technology, history of engineers, business history, South Asian history
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Neeraja Sankaran
Visiting Professor
PhD (Yale University)
Research Interests: History of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, including History of Virology, History of Biology, History of Virus Research, History of Immunology, History of Molecular Biology, History of Disease, and Historiography of Science, including Scientific Biography and Autobiography, Oral History
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Rahul Sarwate
Assistant Professor
PhD (Columbia University)
Research Interests: Intellectual and Cultural History, Social History, Religion and Society, Modern South Asia, Translation Studies, Public Histories, Marathi Language
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Shishir Saxena
Associate Professor
PhD (University of Cambridge)
Research Interests: Indian Philosophy (darśanaśāstra), Sanskrit, Epics (Rāmāyaṇa & Mahābhārata)
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Ayesha Sheth
Assistant Professor
PhD (University of Pennsylvania)
Research Interests: Early Modern History, Courtly Cultures, Performance Studies, Mercantile Networks, Indigenous Histories, Early Modern Literatures
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Charu Singh
Assistant Professor
PhD (University of Delhi)
Research Interests: Vernacular Archives and Manuscripts, Medieval Indian Literature, Literary Historiography , Women’s history
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Lisa Widdison
Assistant Professor
PhD (University of Hawaii)
Research Interests: Comparative Philosophy, Classical Indian Philosophies, Aesthetic Theory, History of Philosophy Ancient Greek and Roman to Modern European, Epistemology and Emotions