Social Sciences topics for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programs

Social Science: Society, Space, and Culture.

Social Sciences programs introduce students to distinct social science disciplines such as anthropology, geography and sociology. The courses also focused on selected themes, such as globalization, food, religion, arts and digital society that enable students to make connections across social science disciplines.

Through a combination of conceptual/theoretical understanding and use of real world examples, the course introduces students to a social science-based view of the contemporary world.

Class discussions are usually enriched through a range of case-studies, films, cultural and literary texts, as well as a workshop/field trip.

Topics covered:

Introductions to the Disciplines

Society: Thinking Sociologically
Mills, C. Wright (2000). “The Promise”, in his The Sociological Imagination. OUP. Pp.3-11.
Bauman, Z. and May, T. (2001), ‘Introduction’ in Thinking Sociologically, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, pp 1-13

Space: Thinking Geographically
Jackson, P. (2006). Thinking Geographically, Geography, Volume 91(3): 199-204
Social Science Bites Podcast, Doreen Massey on Space:
http://www.socialsciencespace.com/2013/02/podcastdoreen-massey-on-space/

Culture: Thinking Anthropologically
Chapter 6: Anthropological Explanations in Scupin, R. (2012). Cultural Anthropology: A Global Perspective (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson. Excerpts from Leslie White, Michael Taussig, Clifford Geertz, Sherry Ortner, and James Clifford (handouts given in class)

The Global and the Local

Overview
Massey, Doreen (1994). “A Global Sense of Place.” From Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.

The global city
Ghertner, D. Asher (2011). “Rule by Aesthetics: World-Class City Making in Delhi” in Ananya Roy and Aihwa Ong (eds.), Worlding Cities: Asian Experiments and the Art of Being Global. Blackwell.

Culture and globalization
Tomlinson, John (2002). “Globalization and Cultural Identity” in David Held and Anthony McGrew (eds.), The Global Transformation Reader. Polity.

Migration
Kendall, D. (2012). ‘Always let the Road decide’, South Asian Diaspora, 4:1
McMillin, D. (2006). ‘Outsourcing Identities: call centres and cultural transformation in India’, EPW, 41:3.

Arts and Society

Overview
Clammer, John (2014). Vision and Society: Towards a Sociology and Anthropology from Art, Routledge, pp. 3-17.

Art and activism
Brosius, Christiane (2017). “Reading the City through Art,” IIC Quarterly 43(3&4).
Bring your own example of activism through art.

Food

Overview
Ward, Paul et al. (2010) ‘A Sociology of Food and Eating’, Journal of Sociology 46:4.

Producing Food
Indian farmer suicides: commentary, Significance
Amartya Sen, “Hunger in the Contemporary World.”

You are what you eat: politics with food
Film: Castemopolitan Mumbai
Punwani, J. (2015). Maharashtra’s beef ban, EPW

Food and Identity Fox, Robin (2003). “Food and Eating: An Anthropological Perspective.” Social Issues Research Centre.
Vishal, Anoothi (2017). “Partition Changed India’s Food Cultures Forever.” https://thewire.in/167360/partition-food-punjab-mughlai-bengal/

Religion

Overview
Macionis, J.J. (2008) ‘Religion and belief’ in Sociology: a global introduction, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Fundamentalism and Secularism
Emerson & Hartman (2006), “The Rise of Religious Fundamentalism,” Annual Review of Sociology.

Godmen
Chakraborty (2006), “Ramdev and Somatic Nationalism: Embodying the Nation, Desiring the Global,” EPW.

Politics and Religion of Witch Hunts
Desai, Amit (2009). “Anti-‘Anti-Witchcraft’ and the Maoist Insurgency in Rural Maharashtra, India.” Dialectical Anthropology 33(3/4).

Digital Space and Society

Overview
Lupton, D. (2014). “Chapter 2: Theorising Digital Society” in Digital Sociology. Taylor & Francis.
Experiential learning activity using mobile phones

Leisure and the digital self
Shipley, J. W. (2015). “Selfie Love: Public Lives in an Era of Celebrity Pleasure, Violence, and Social Media.” American Anthropologist, 117(2), 403–413.

Online activism
Coleman, Gabriella (2014). “Chapter 5: Anonymous Everywhere” in Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous (pp. 143-176).

Virtual Realities and Spatializing the Digital Boellstorff, T. (2008). Coming of age in Second Life: An anthropologist explores the virtually human. Princeton University Press. First chapter available at: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s10611.pdf.

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