Summer Semester 2025 - Courses
Foundation Course: Indian Civilizations
Faculty: Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Professor, Ashoka University
Grading Policy: Students will be required to write one assignment paper due at the end of the term, for which students will be given an adequate number of prompts from the subjects discussed in class.
Pre-requisites: None
Grading Policy: Attendance & Participation: 20%, Quizzes: 40%, Semester-long project: 40%
Foundation Course: Literature and the World
Course Code: FC-0701-1
Faculty: Abir Bazaz, Associate Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: What is literature? And what does it teach us about who we are, the world we live in, and where we are going? Does literature help us make better sense of the lives of others or the necessary strife involved in the human condition? Does literature put us more genuinely in touch with ourselves and one another? What is the relation between literature and politics? Or literature and religion? In this course, we will search for answers to some of these questions by reading modern literature from all over the world. We will be studying literary texts by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, V.S. Naipaul, Toni Morrison and Flannery O’Connor among others.
Pre-requisites: None
Grading Policy: Participation (15%), DS attendance (15%), Postings (20%), Midterm (20%) and End Term Paper (30%).
Foundation Course: Great Books
Course Code: FC-0601-1
Faculty: Tatyana Kostochka, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: Evil comes in many forms. In this course we will explore works from a variety of geographical areas and time periods to think about the nature and manifestations of evil in our world.
Pre-requisites: None
Grading Policy: TBD
Foundation Course: Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Thinking
Course Code: FC-0306-1
Faculty: Aalok Thakkar, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: This course explores the rich history of mathematics in India, from the Vedic period to modern times. Focusing on key texts and ideas, it examines the evolution of concepts like numbers in the Vedas, the construction of geometric figures in the Sulbasutras, and the discovery of zero and the place value system. Students will study the contributions of great mathematicians such as Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Bhaskaracharya, and others in fields like algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and combinatorics. The course also highlights the Kerala school’s advances in calculus and spherical trigonometry, including proofs from the renowned Yuktibhasa. Finally, it explores the legacy of Indian mathematics in the modern era, focusing on the profound work of Srinivasa Ramanujan and its deep connection to India’s mathematical traditions.
Pre-requisites: None
Grading Policy: 50% weekly assignments, 20% class participation, 30% end-term exam
Foundation Course: Mind and Behavior: A Neuroscience Perspective
Course Code: FC-0503-1
Faculty: Supriya Ray, Associate Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: Mind is an intangible entity encompassing consciousness, perception, and self-awareness. But the mind does not exist in a vacuum, neither it is a spiritual entity. It is the brain that interprets the world through our senses, creates the subjective experience of reality, and dictates our behaviour.
The aims of this course are to make students.
• Aware of our current scientific understanding of the mind, brain and behaviour
• Capable in posing the key questions of relevance in the field of behavioural neuroscience
• Understand the techniques and methods used to explore questions about mind, brain and behaviour
• Appreciate the role of physiological and cognitive processes in real-world contexts
Pre-requisites: None
Grading Policy: TBD
History: War: History, Politics, Society
Course code: HIS-2505/ SOA-2234/ POL-2107 / IR-2067
Faculty: Pratyay Nath, Associate Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: How has war shaped gender identities and political ideologies in our societies? In what ways do race, class, and religion figure in the experience of war? How have computer games, movies, and museums made war an object of popular consumption? How have war and the environment shaped each other? These are some of the questions that the present course addresses. It offers a global history of the inter-relationship between war, politics, and society. In the first week, we will look at war and politics, with respect to ideology, propaganda, and protest. In the second week, we will study war and gender, with respect to masculinity, femininity, violence, and remembrance. In the third week we will analyse war and society, in terms of labour, class, religion, and race. In the fourth week, we will examine war and the environment, in terms of animals and ecology. In the fifth week, we will study war and culture with respect to museums, reportage, movies, and computer games. In the final week, we will look at the representation of war in literature, posters, and comics. Drawing examples from across time and space. The present course will unravel this rich history through a close reading of recent scholarly literature on the subject. Alongside this, students will also get hands-on experience of analysing modern cultural artifacts of war (like movies, graphic novels, posters, and games). By the end of the course, students will have a basic understanding of the social, cultural, and political lives of war in the past and present times.
Pre-requisites: None.
Cross-listing: Political Science and Sociology
Grading Policy: Class Participation – 25%, Mid-Term Presentation – 35%, Term Paper – 40%
History: Pleasure, Power and Politics in South Asia,1000-1800
Course code: HIS-2809/ POL-2132/ VA-3067
Faculty: Deepashree Dutta, Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University
Course Description: What are the ways in which beauty and pleasure inform politics? How did objects like perfumes, betel leaves (pān) and clothing robes become symbols of power? To what extent did astrology inform courtly practices? How did painting and architecture express notions of power? The present course will address these questions through a study of a range of courtly societies of South Asia between 1000-1800. In the first week, we will take up the courtly traditions of four different pre-Mughal political regimes, and study them in terms of their coinage, aesthetic and story-telling traditions. In the second week, we will be looking at the Mughal emperors and the political culture that developed around them. This would encompass Babur’s peripatetic life, Humayun’s astrological court, Akbar’s sacred sovereignty, the paintings of Jahangir, and the buildings of Shah Jahan. In the third week, we will be undertaking a study of courtly rituals, performances and practices across a range of polities; encompassing the themes of gifting, food and feasting, musical performances and textile, and clothing. In the fourth week, we are going to explore how different social and political groups, like officers, servants, women and eunuchs had constituted and negotiated courtly relations. In the fifth week, we are going to look at the Europeans in terms of their engagements, portrayals, diplomatic interactions and artistic exchanges with the South Asian courts. Finally, in the sixth week, we will undertake a study of the new artistic tastes that characterized regional courts which flourished during the eighteenth century. In the course of these six weeks, we will be engaging with literary narratives as well as paintings and architectures.
Pre-requisites: None
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: The grading for this course will be based on three components : Class Attendance and Participation : 25% Mid Term Presentation and Discussion: 25% End Term Writing Assignment (2000-2500 words): 50%
International Relations: The Rise of Populism in International Politics
Course code: IR-2013/ POL-2038
Faculty: Ananya Sharma, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: Populism is one of the main political buzzwords of the 21st century. The rise of populist forces in recent years has generated new challenges in many long-established democracies, such as the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Greece, and France, as well as destabilizing states worldwide, such as in Venezuela, Brazil, Hungary, Turkey, the Philippines, Thailand, and India. What explains the rise of these forces? What are the consequences? And what can be done to mitigate the risks? The course aims at bringing together the conceptual analysis of populism with comparative case studies in different regions of the world. Given the highly contested nature of populism, we will look in depth to different theories of populism, including institutional, ideological, discursive and socio-cultural understandings of populism. The course will also explore the conditions of emergence of populism and the relations between populism and key political concepts, such as democracy, security, gender, international organizations and political communication.
The course covers:
(i) The core concept of populism and the classification of varieties of populist parties and leaders in different world regions;
(ii) Explanations focused on ‘demand-side’ cultural value change, economic grievances, and patterns of immigration, and also ‘supply-side’ electoral rules and party competition;
(iii) The consequences for the civic culture and the policy agenda; and alternative strategic policy responses.
Pre-requisites: 1000 Level IR course
Cross-listing: Political Science
Grading Policy: Continuous Assessment and End term essay
English: Postcolonial Literatures
Course Code: ENG-3001/ ENG-5301
Faculty: Vivek V. Narayan, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: Postcolonial Literatures is a required survey course for the English Major. How did colonialism shape the modern world? What are the ways in which colonial histories continue to inform our contemporary realities? How can we speak of the economic, cultural, and political subordination of the colonized peoples? What does it mean to remain mindful of these legacies as we engage with each other and with works of art and literature? These are some of the questions that inform postcolonial theory. This course reads fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from the Global South to explore the theoretical language and resistant politics of postcolonial theory. Course material includes writing by Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Aijaz Ahmed, Benita Parry, Chinua Achebe, Jean Rhys, Homi Bhabha, Frantz Fanon, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Arundhati Roy, Gloria Anzaldua, JM Coetzee, Eunice de Souza, AK Ramanujan, Zadie Smith, and Arjun Appadurai.
(UGs may enroll in ENG-3001-2, while graduate students are welcome to enroll in ENG-5301-2.)
Pre-requisites: None
Grading Policy: Class participation : 20%, Roundtable spoken report : 15%, Roundtable written report : 15%,
Paired project : 25%, Self-evaluation for paired project : 5%, Entry and exit assignments : 20% (2 x 10%)
English: Transnational Solidarities: A history of exchange between the struggles against race and caste
Course Code: ENG-2618/ HIS-2514
Faculty: Vivek V. Narayan, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: On December 16, 2016, the activist and scholar Angela Davis delivered a lecture in Mumbai titled “Black Lives, Dalit Lives: Histories and Solidarities.” While cautioning against the temptation of reducing one to the other, Davis pointed out that “there are many insights to be gleaned by thinking together about two different peoples and two different modes of subjugation.” In 2020, the protests in the aftermath of the rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Hathras, UP, made explicit reference to forging global connections. The scholar Roja Singh said, “We, as a human community are capable of finding solidarity in this increasing pandemic of racist and casteist sexual violence. We raise our collective voice – Dalit Lives Matter! […] We rise from their ashes as a regenerative international solidarity group – a global movement – a cry for restorative justice and human dignity justice for all”. Davis’s lecture and Singh’s statement are recent additions to a transnational dialogue between the struggles against race and caste that goes back nearly 150 years. This conversation has included WEB Du Bois’s theorization of the global “color line,” BR Ambedkar’s anti-caste vision rooted in universals of equality and humanity, ML King’s engagements with Gandhian thought, the Dalit Panthers finding inspiration and example in the Black Panthers, TM Yesudasan’s formulation of the Dalit “double consciousness” after Du Bois, and more recently, the explicit internationalist visions of Suraj Yengde, Yashica Dutt, Shailaja Paik, Nico Slate, and Isabel Wilkerson. Taking inspiration from these ongoing dialogues, this course analyzes the importance of transnational solidarities in the struggles against race and caste. By analyzing the encounters, borrowings, and (mis)recognitions that characterize this transnational dialogue, we will identify shared thematics in these struggles and chart their evolving relationships of sympathy and solidarity. This seminar will discuss a range of material—archival sources, theoretical writing, poetry, fiction, life writing, film, and music—to chart this exchange across historical archives and repertoires of embodied experience. The focus on transnational dialogue—always contingent and never perfect—introduces students to an embodied intellectual history of political practice that theorizes analogy, inspiration, renewal, interpretation, and misrecognition. By tracing the global flows of ideas that constitute human subjectivities across the archive and the repertoire, this course will invite students to consider the ways in which political action and intellectual discourse rearticulate particular histories of local struggles as transnational solidarities.
Pre-requisites: None
Cross-Listed: TBD
Grading Policy: Class participation : 20%, Entry and exit assignments : 20% (10% x 2), Discussion Posts : 20% (5% x 4)
Group project : 15%, Self-evaluation for group project : 5%, Paper : 20%
Media Studies: Wisdom of the Documentary Film
Course code: MS-2091
Faculty: Natasha Badhwar, Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University
Course Description: With a focus on South Asian non-fiction films, this is an experiential course on analyzing the affective impact of viewing documentary film on the self and diverse audiences. Through screenings, analysis and moderated discussions, students will develop the practice to observe, appreciate and articulate the form, content and craft of documentary, and connect it to film theory, visual culture and socio-political discourse. Students will write personalized reviews on themes, theory, aesthetics and impact of a range of documentary work. They will also research and create a video pitch for a documentary film proposal.
Pre-requisites: None
Cross-listing: Visual Arts
Grading Policy: Grades will be divided over the following: Class Participation, Written response to prompts generated after viewing documentaries, Video pitch proposal for a documentary
Media Studies: Writing Narrative Non-fiction: Craft and Practice
Course code: MS-2241/ VA-2013/ CW-2242
Faculty: Natasha Badhwar, Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University
Course Description: This course seeks to forge a lifelong relationship with writing and awaken the connections between reading, writing, selfhood and personal agency. Narrative non-fiction is an expansive genre that borrows from the craft of fiction and poetry to create compelling, honest writing that resonates with readers and expands their empathy. The best essays are an exploration of vulnerability, doubts and dissonant realities. They are a location to identify questions and interrogate ideas through deep research, interviews and reflection on lived experiences.
Pre-requisites: None
Cross-listing: Creative Writing/ Media Studies/ Visual Arts
Grading Policy: 40 marks for final submission, mid-term essay and class participation and 60 marks for submissions of in-class writing
Biology: Python for Research in Life Sciences
Course code: BIO-3636
Faculty: Sudipta Tung, Faculty, Ashoka University
Course Description: This is an introductory course to Python to use this versatile programming language for aiding research in Life sciences. This course does not assume any prior knowledge in programming, starts with the basic coding lessons, and builds up upon them. The course will nudge you to think intuitively in terms writing an algorithm. This skill, once mastered, is transferable to any programming language in future. In addition, after first reviewing the basics of Python 3, we shall learn how to use Python scripts to import, organize, analyze, and visualize experimental data, and run own simulations to generate new in silico research data. Using a combination of a lectures, and guided hands-on sessions, students will be exposed to a variety of different Python features across various topics in Life sciences. We shall explore examples and case studies with data, inter alia, behavioral experiments, genomics, epidemiology, and biostatistics. Students will also be introduced to the rapidly developing field of image processing and machine learning. Students will get a chance to hone their new Python skills by solving take-home assignments on their own. More details can be found on this webpage: https://sites.google.com/ashoka.edu.in/summercourse-python/home
Pre-requisites: None
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: Assignments 50%, Exam 20%, DIY project 20%, Classroom participation 10%.
Computer Science: Introduction to Computer Science
Course code: CS-1102
Faculty: Aalok Dhaval Thakkar, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: This introductory course provides a foundational understanding of computational thinking as a problem-solving strategy, explores the core principles of computation, and introduces students to various subdisciplines within the field. Students will learn how to approach and solve problems both with and without code, with a strong emphasis on correctness, design, and style. The course is structured around two key computational models: the functional model, which views computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions, and the imperative model, which focuses on sequences of instructions that manipulate program state. By exploring these two perspectives, students will develop a deeper understanding of how different programming paradigms influence problem-solving and algorithm design. The course concludes with a series of lectures that offer disciplinary breadth through topics such as information theory, cryptography, compiler design, databases, numerical algorithms, quantitative modeling, and machine learning.
Pre-requisites: None
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: Assignments: 40% weekly assignments, 25% weekly quizzes, 35% end-term exam
Entrepreneurship: Business Applications of Data Science
Course code: ENT-2045
Faculty: Tushar Jaruhar, Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University
Course Description: The course offers a comprehensive exploration of the core concepts and tools necessary for leveraging AI and data analytics in decision-making. Designed for students aspiring to work in the fields of data science, AI, and business analytics, this course combines theoretical knowledge with hands-on practice across multiple key areas. The future of work is expected to evolve rapidly. Artificial intelligence (AI) is going to drive this change. We are already feeling the impact of AI in several products and services that we use almost daily. For example, Google uses an AI tool to selectively show us advertisements. The income tax department is using A.I. with business intelligence to identify people who have not been paying taxes. The world of medicine is undergoing changes with A.I. being used to identify cancerous cells. Companies are looking to hire data analysts and scientists who can create novel products and solve complex problems. The acute shortage of skilled manpower is being felt globally. Therefore, providing undergraduate students with skills in artificial intelligence and business insights is the need of the hour. This course is designed to teach students the core concepts of data analytics. It is oriented towards undergraduates who may not necessarily have coding skills. The audience is expected to have the willingness to learn and explore. The focus will be to help students create a portfolio of projects where they can demonstrate the application of data analytics. By the end of this course, students will be proficient in using AI and data analytics tools to solve real-world problems, making them well-equipped for roles in data science and AI-driven decision-making.
Pre-requisites: None.
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: Grades will be allocated on a curve based on the overall class’s performance..
Entrepreneurship: Artificial Intelligence and Technology for Entrepreneurs
Course code: ENT-2041
Faculty: Tushar Jaruhar, Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University
Course Description: This course is designed to equip entrepreneurs with essential skills and knowledge in AI and technology, enabling them to leverage these tools to drive innovation and growth in their businesses. Through a combination of theoretical learning and hands-on practical exercises, participants will gain proficiency in key technologies such as Excel, KNIME, Tableau, Google Analytics, Hugging Face, DALL-E, and no-code app development platforms. Participants will begin by mastering Excel, learning how to manipulate and analyze data effectively using advanced functions and formulas. They will then delve into KNIME, a powerful data analytics platform, to explore data preprocessing, analysis, and visualization techniques. With Tableau, participants will learn to create dynamic and interactive data visualizations to gain actionable insights from their data. The course will also cover Google Analytics, providing participants with the skills to track and analyze website traffic, measure campaign effectiveness, and make data-driven decisions for their digital marketing strategies. Participants will explore the capabilities of Hugging Face and DALL-E for natural language processing and image generation, unlocking opportunities for creative content creation and automation. Additionally, participants will learn about no-code app development platforms, empowering them to build and deploy applications without writing a single line of code. By the end of the course, participants will have the knowledge and skills to harness the power of AI and technology to drive innovation, streamline operations, and create value in their entrepreneurial ventures.
Pre-requisites: None.
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: Grades will be allocated on a curve based on the overall class’s performance based on the faculty’s discretion.
Psychology: Computational Modelling of Behaviour
Course code: PSY-3102
Faculty: Supriya Ray, Associate Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: Computational models in neuroscience aim to mimic brain mechanisms to understand behaviour. This course will cover model design, evaluation, and selection techniques, including linear and non-linear regression methods. Students will explore contemporary cognitive models, and gain insights into cognitive phenomena (e.g., Perception, Attention, Executive control, Decision making, Learning and memory) and the underlying neuroscience, preparing them for advanced studies in cognitive modeling. The course will also introduce students to symbolic models and artificial neural networks, emphasizing their application in understanding cognitive processes.
Pre-requisites: None.
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: Class Quizzes: 20%, Mid-semester Exam: 30%,
End Semester Exam: 40%, Class Attendance and Participation: 10%
Psychology: Psychology of Health and Illness
Course code: PSY-3083
Faculty: Annie Baxi, Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University
Course Description: The paper is a blend of Critical and Cultural Health Psychology and intends to detail the various theoretical perspectives on health and illness and strategies that promote healing and wellbeing. Health is defined as ‘a way of being’ which is not limited by the absence of malfunction or disease but an experience that is grounded in one’s body and is shaped largely by individual and collective attributions around it. The designed course attempts to address questions like how do we identify and operationalise markers of a healthy living in a context? What are the various ways in which illness(es) can be experienced ? What is the symbiotic relationship of the individual reality and social processes in understanding health and illness?
Pre-requisites: Introduction to Psychology
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: Attendance (Lecture) – 10% of final grade Weekly quiz- 20 % of the final grade Assignment 1- 20% of the final grade Assignment 2- 20% of the final grade Group Assignment and Viva- 30% of the final grade.
Psychology: Violence as a Human Behavior
Course Code: PSY-3045
Faculty: Simantini Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: What enables human beings to perpetrate acts of cruelty and aggression? Can we predict violent behaviors accurately for some groups? Can we prevent violence from happening? Violence is a widespread and complex issue that has been part of human behavior through time. In this class, we will tease violence apart in multiple axes, but usually in a data driven fashion. In the first half of the course we will break violence down to its elemental blocks using concepts from psychology, neuroscience, genetics, evolution, and epigenetics, as well as the theoretical frameworks that are commonly used to study violence. The second half of this course will reassemble fundamental types of violence based on religion, politics, gender, and socioeconomic structures using the concepts discussed. Prospective students are encouraged to approach the material as part of a journey to understand violence. Each member of the class might arrive at a different conclusion about violence at the end of the course, but the goal of the class is to provide them with different frameworks to interpret and analyze data about violence to reach their conclusion. This class is MOSTLY taught as an advanced seminar with a flipped classroom style. The instructor will play the role of a faculty moderator of student led discussion. Each week a few research articles, reviews, book chapters or articles from the media will be discussed by students, with the entire class being an active participant in discussion. All students will be expected to participate in class discussion AND come to class having done the readings for the day.
Main Reading:
• Sapolsky, R. M. (2017). Behave: the biology of humans at our best and worst. New York, New York: Penguin Pres
Available through Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/Behave. This is one of the best books available on Violence by Neuroscientist turned primatologist Robert Sapolsky (Stanford University). At every level of biology, from genes, to epigenetic mechanisms, to molecules, biochemistry, cells, neuronal networks and brain areas- Sapolsky dissects violent behavior and aggression and shows how nature and nurture intersect at each junction. We will be using some chapters from this book as lecture readings. Here is a 1 hour talk from Sapolsky on the Neuroscience behind Behavior: https://youtu.be/7htlm3DQ_so.
Pre-requisites: Statistics and Research Methods I (PSY-2001) or Statistics for Economics (ECO-1400)
Grading Policy: Syllabus Quiz [Individual] – 5%, Class Punctuality and Attendance [individual] 5%, Discussion Section- 10%, Academic Integrity and class citizenship [Individual] – 5+5%, SLAM Presentations[Individual] – 20% | 10% for each presentation, Main Points and Muddy Points (MP/MP) papers [Individual] -20% (4 best scores counted), Weekly self-assessment assignments [Individual]-10%, Group Infographic project [Group + individual]- 20%.
Psychology: Clinical Psychology
Course Code: PSY-2041
Faculty: Simantini Ghosh, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: This course focuses on understanding the phenomenology (description), etiology (causes), and treatment of abnormal behavior. Major psychological syndromes will be discussed along with the current APA classification system (DSM-5) and other classification systems. Genetic, biological, social, and psychological parameters implicated in the etiology of these syndromes will be introduced. Students will learn the principles of clinical assessment and the 5P model of psychological assessment and case formulation.
Course Objectives:
- Understand the merits and limitations of research methods and assessment techniques for clinical psychology
- Learn the basics of critical and analytical skills required to read a journal article on clinical psychology
- Understand and be able to describe the current APA classification system (DSM-5) and show appreciation for other classification systems internationally
- Understand and be able to describe the major psychological disorders
- Describe the genetic, biological, social, and psychological influences on these disorders
- Understand the influence of societal, cultural, historical, and environmental influences on these disorders
- Appreciate the concept of comorbidity
- Discuss mental health services historically, and in today’s USA, and appreciate international differences
- Understand ethical issues involved with mental health services
- Learn the importance of vocabulary, empathy and nuances in abnormal behavior
- Be able to navigate and think through elementary clinical problems in practice
- Learn to write an interview questionnaire based on a clinical case study
Pre-requisites: Introduction to Psychology ( PSY-1001) or Thinking like a Psychologist ( PSY-1003)and Statistics and Research Methods I (PSY-2001) or Statistics for Economics (ECO-1400)
Grading Policy:
| Mode | Grade component | Weight |
| Individual | Syllabus Quiz | 5% |
| Individual | Academic Integrity | 5% |
| Individual | LS Attendance | 5% |
| Individual | DS Attendance | 5% |
| Individual | Applied Learning Checks (3×10%) 3 best scores out of 4 | 30% |
| Individual | Pre-Practicum in-DS Assignment | 5% |
|
Group
|
Clinical Practicum
|
45%
|
| Case Presentation: 10% | ||
| Questionnaire 1: 10% | ||
| Questionnaire 2: 10% | ||
| Final Report: 15% | ||
| Collaboration scores (will affect total grade) | ||
| Total score | 100% | |
Psychology: Social Psychology
Course Code: PSY-2051
Faculty: Mary Jane Arneaud, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: The course is a study of the individual’s interrelationship with other people and social groups. Topics include the social self; perceiving persons; stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination; attitudes; conformity; group processes; attraction and close relationships; helping others; and aggression.
Pre-requisites: Introduction to Psychology (PSY-1001)
Grading Policy: Two essays worth 50% each
Economics: Indian Economy Since Independence
Course code: ECO-3501
Faculty: Nitish Kashyap, Visiting Faculty, Ashoka University
Course Description: This course on “Indian Economy” familiarizes students with India’s growth trajectory and its development experience reflecting on sectoral and overall trends via empirical literature and policy debates. The materials chosen for the course aim to give students an overview of the 60 years of growth in the post-independence period while focusing on the challenges for a welfare state. The course would give students a bird’s eye view of the long-term trajectory of the Indian economy since Independence.
Pre-requisites: None
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: Absolute grades with boundaries as specified in Ashoka document. Evaluation shall include written exams, viva, presentations (depending on enrollments).
Economics: Introduction to Data Analytics and Machine Learning
Course code: ECO-3401
Faculty: Parush Arora, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: The course discusses why data analysis is a required skill among social scientists. The course not only focus on theory but aims to teach students how to analyze data and apply techniques. The core topics will include prediction, supervised-unsupervised learning, bias-variance trade-off, cross-validation, regularization, how linear regression is used from the perspective of prediction Vs causation etc. The course will also introduce some of the machine learning techniques like lasso, k-nearest neighbours, decision tree etc. The course aims to teach students to analyze data on RStudio and R.
Pre-requisites: Statistics for Economics (ECO-1400) and Econometrics (ECO-2400)
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: Student grades have 3 components: midterm exam (30% weightage), Assignments (30\% weightage) and final presentations (40\% weightage). The syllabus for the midterm exam will be announced in class and on AMS/Moodle/Google Classroom.
Visual Arts: Histories of South Asian Art: From the Earliest Times to the Present
Course code: VA-3006
Faculty: Sraman Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, Ashoka University
Course Description: What is Art and who is it meant for? What is specifically South Asian about South Asian Art? What does it mean to think of South Asia and Art as analytical categories? Did South Asian Art always exist? Or were historical processes involved in the making of the field? Where do we locate the “genesis” of art in South Asia? Did art forms in South Asia emerge in a zone of cultural and social isolation? Or can we trace trajectories of trans-regional contacts, encounters, and exchanges as central to the shaping of the field of South Asian Art? What is space of tradition and innovation in the visual arts of South Asia? Did arts of South Asia “influence” artistic practices in other regions? How did artists at different points in history think about the region we identify as South Asia? Seeking to address some of these questions, this course examines aspects of the visual arts of South Asia from its earliest traces in cave paintings, to sculptures, illustrated manuscripts, calligraphy, and architecture. The course follows a chronological scale, from pre-history to c. 1980s. The vast geographical as well as the temporal span of the field will restrict the course from delivering an encyclopaedic survey. The course will prioritize intensive analysis of selected themes. Rather than placing the teleology of South Asian “art” solely in the context of changing dynastic histories, the course takes up specific themes in art across a range of objects, artefacts, archaeological sites, built spaces, religious and political symbols, and institutions of art pedagogy and exhibitions. In the process we address the questions of image, icon, and representations of body, portraiture, architectural forms, landscape, in the context of social and ideological changes, aesthetic turns, shifting patrons and markets, and introduction of new material media. The course will probe both ‘South Asia’ and ‘South Asian Art’ as stable (art) historical categories and map the new methodologies and vocabularies employed by art historians. Class discussions will form the basis for compulsory museum/ gallery/ site classes to the National Museum of India (New Delhi, physical classes), NGMA (New Delhi, physical classes), Delhi Art Gallery (Delhi, physical classes), National Handloom and Handicrafts Museum (New Delhi, physical classes), Partition Museum (Delhi), DAG, Indian Museum, Kolkata (Virtual), British Museum (Virtual), Victoria and Albert Museum (Virtual) and the MET (Virtual) which will enable us to study the works of art in their institutional locations and explore the visual dynamics of organization of exhibition spaces.
Pre-requisites: None
Cross-listing: None
Grading Policy: This course follows a pattern of continuous assessment and grading through the entire semester including active class and online museum visits and image analysis, and mid semester and end semester evaluations. The assessment and grading criterion are as follows:
1. Students will be assessed on basis on their active engagement with course contents during classes and after class office hours which will carry ten percent (10%) of the total course grades.
2. Museum, gallery and site classes and image analysis will carry thirty percent (30%) of the total course grades. The subsequent submission of a written report on an object/ image of your choice (within a word limit of 700 to 900 words) counts for 30% of the total course grades.
3. The mid semester assessment will comprise of a class presentation based on any one image chosen by the student in discussion with the instructor. The mid semester evaluation will carry twenty percent (20%) of the total course grades.
4. For the end semester evaluation, we will write an essay between 2000 and 2500 words (including footnotes and bibliography). The topic of the end semester assessment has to be chosen by the student from a range of verbal text and visual image prompts provided by the course instructor. The end semester assessments for this course will follow a feed forward method and students are actively encouraged to submit (within date and time specified) one working draft/ draft in progress to the course instructor for comments and feedback. The end semester assessment will carry forty percent (40%) of the total course grades.
5. Audit students have to give and actively participate in classes (both on campus and museum, gallery, and site classes). Students auditing the course have to present for the mid semester presentations. For end semester assessments, audit students have to submit 250-400 words abstracts of the end semester essay. Attendance and Class participation for audit students are the same as credit students.
6. All submissions including gallery/ museum/ site reports, mid semester and end semester papers must be made electronically (over Ashoka email id) to the course instructor.
7. Plagiarism (intended or unintended) constitutes the most serious academic offence. Any act of plagiarism will be reported to the Academic Integrity Committee of the University and will attract punitive measures from grade cuts to failing the course. The first detection of plagiarism in any paper will result in grade cuts and reporting to the AIC. For repeat offense, students will be allotted a Fail grade for the entire course. Please go through the Academic Integrity document of Ashoka University to check what constitutes plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. Specific citation styles for texts and images will be addressed by specific course instructors.
