IIT-Delhi launches MA programme in culture, society and thought

New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi has launched a master in arts programme in culture, society and thought, a first-of-its-kind course among technology and engineering colleges in the country, according to officials.

The programme will train students in a variety of fields, including research, academia, social work, media and policy-making, in government and non-governmental organisations, research institutes and social entrepreneurship organisations among others.

The course has been envisaged as a two-year full-time programme that focuses on the thematic of culture and society, and thought through the core disciplines of sociology, literature and philosophy.

The application process for admissions to the newly launched programme begins on March 20 for the academic year starting from July. The last date to apply for the programme is April 4.

'The new MA programme explores aspects of contemporaneity and interdisciplinarity across disciplines in humanities and social sciences. Its location at IIT-Delhi gives it a unique vantage point to generate a new corpus of knowledge, populate new kinds of archives, and develop critical methodologies to give new directions to humanities and social science research from the Global South,' Head Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT-Delhi Farhana Ibrahim said.

'The programme offers a unique opportunity for students to explore courses across traditional disciplines, and to forge new synergies across existing master's programmes offered by the department -- cognitive science and economics,' he added.

Interested candidates with a bachelor's degree in any discipline -- with a minimum 55 per cent or equivalent Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) in BA and first division for all other degrees -- can apply for the MA course.

The admission procedure includes shortlisting through an entrance examination or GATE-2024 score followed by an interview of the shortlisted candidates in May.

Graduates from the MA programme will also be eligible to join the doctoral programmes offered by the department of humanities and social sciences at the IIT-Delhi, or other international doctoral programmes.

'An open house will be conducted on March 15 for interested candidates to learn more about the programme's structure and its fees, faculty members, scholarships, accommodation, academic and career prospects among others,' Ibrahim said.