Society and Culture IIT Gandhinagar

Overview

The two year Society and Culture program at IIT Gandhinagar emerges from a conviction that students need to be trained to understand the social and political context around them; that encounters with theoretical and cutting-edge formulations on societies and nations are necessary and must also be learned in tandem with real-life observation and fieldwork.

That being said, the program also helps students understand intersections between disciplines so that recurring themes such as identity, democracy, tradition, modernity, citizenship, selfhood do not get restricted to a narrow disciplinary focus. 

This two-pronged approached i.e. a grounding in the individual discipline as well as exposure to interdisciplinarity form an integral part of a student’s learning, and this is further developed and tested through rigorous research project. In order to help students deepen their knowledge in a discipline of choice, they are also offered an opportunity to follow a discipline ‘track’ whereby faculty specializing in, for example, disciplines of literature and history, take a student through a focused path, without compromising on his/her need to understand other disciplines as well.

Careers

We envision the program to give students a critical ability to approach the world and its many challenges. Careers after the MA program could be related journalism, advertising/media, communications, writing, teaching, human resources, nonprofit (NGOs, policy think-tanks), and of course, higher studies in academia should you choose to pursue a Ph.D. Students will also have the option of taking the University Grants Commission Lectureship exams (N.ET/S.L.E.T) in the allied disciplines. We believe that the possibilities are endless, and as with any other degree, employability is a combination of an excellent academic record, motivation, and a positive approach.