IISER Pune
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (IISER) PUNE
where tomorrow’s science begins today
An Autonomous Institution, Ministry of Education, Govt. of India
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Humanities and Social Sciences 

The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) at IISER Pune plays a complex role in the context of the institute. The faculty members of HSS offer courses and conduct research in fundamental humanities and social sciences disciplines and interdisciplinary areas that cut across different social and natural sciences.

The department is an academic centre in its own right, generating scholarship in disciplines ranging from anthropology, archaeology, development studies, history, literature, film studies, and political science, among others. At the same time, it is engaged in furthering the greater mission of the institution, exploring the critical interface between the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Through such interfaces and collaborations across disciplines, the faculty help to shape social and environmental policy, generate interdisciplinary pedagogic content, and push community level social change.

The department has a doctoral programme in which advanced research is carried out by candidates in areas that can be supervised by our faculty. Prospective PhD applicants can write to individual faculty members for informal queries and apply through the PhD application portal at this link.

Prospective faculty applicants are advised to contact Dr Chaitra Redkar (chaitra@iiserpune.ac.in) for informal enquiries and apply through the faculty application portal at this link. The department envisions breadth and depth of disciplines across the spectrum of the humanities and social sciences, and welcomes well-regarded scholars and teachers from various HSS disciplines to apply.

The current faculty members and their areas of research interests are listed below.

Faculty Members
Name Designation Research
Venketeswara R Pai Associate Professor History and Development of Astronomy and Mathematics in India, History and Development of Vakya system of Astronomy, Kerala School of Astronomy, Manuscriptology, Scientific Literature in Sanskrit and Malayalam, Paninian Grammar
Chaitra Redkar Associate Professor, Dy. Chair, Humanities and Social Sciences, Associate Dean (Student and Campus Activities) Political Ideas in Modern India, Gandhian Studies, Gender Studies, Indian Politics
Pooja Sancheti Assistant Professor Postmodernist fiction, Magical Realism, Myth, English Language Teaching, Narrative Theories, Art & Aesthetics
Shalini Sharma Associate Professor Environmental justice, Political ecology, Environment and development studies, Media studies, Memory studies, Oral history, Climate justice
Pushkar Sohoni Associate Professor and Chair, Humanities & Social Sciences Architecture, Historic Preservation, History of Architecture and Art, Numismatics, Indo-Persian Studies, Material Culture, Medieval and Modern History, Languages and Scripts
Bejoy K. Thomas Associate Professor Water resources (agrarian and peri-urban); Adaptation; Sustainable Development Goals 1, 2, 6 and 13; Multidimensional poverty
Adjunct Faculty
Sara Ahmed Adjunct Faculty 30 years of experience on the socio-political economy of water in India as an academic, a practitioner and policy advocate. Founder of the Living Waters Museum, a virtual repository on water heritage, and on the board of WaterAid, India
Sharachchandra Lele Adjunct Faculty Sustainable and equitable development, forest and water management, environmental governance
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