MSc in Contemporary India
The MSc in Contemporary India is a three-term, nine-month course. This unique programme provides students with opportunities for a multidisciplinary immersion in knowledge about India’s signal achievements and her persistent problems, together with high quality training in research methods and in the critical analysis of theory in the main social science disciplines. This innovative degree admitted its first cohort of students in October 2008 and takes about 20 students a year.
The MSc in Contemporary India takes a multidisciplinary approach to the study of India's achievements and problems. Students learn about India through the lenses of international relations, politics, political economy, culture and anthropology, human development and the study of the environment. The degree takes a critical approach to epistemology how we know what we know about India. It also offers a grounding in research methods for Area Studies with particular reference to India. Students will develop or extend a knowledge and critical understanding of:
- the relationships between India’s development achievements and her persistent problems and the relevant academic scholarship and debates
- social science research methods, strategies and ethics that pertain to the study of contemporary India
- the principal theoretical ideas and paradigms with which research on contemporary India is conducted
- critical analysis of sources and the capacity to present findings effectively, verbally and in sustained writing exercise
- the identification, execution and completion of a workable research topic
- the problems and potentials of interdisciplinarity
Students are offered a free choice of dissertation topic, and receive expert supervision from the core staff.
The degree is designed for students from a wide range of backgrounds, particularly the Social Sciences and History but not excluding any discipline. Undergraduate coursework on India or South Asia is not a prerequisite for admission. The course will serve as a valuable stand-alone training for those wishing to specialise in India, either out of academic interest or as preparation for work in the private sector, international organisations, government, NGOs, multi-lateral and bi-lateral aid and development agencies and media organisations. The course will also serve as first stage preparation for subsequent doctoral research on India.
Indian Studies at Oxford University
There is a long tradition of the
study of India at Oxford. The Indian Institute, founded in 1883, was, for many
years, the focus of Indian Studies at Oxford, a role enhanced by its importance
as a training ground for the Indian Civil Service. After Independence, the
Indian Institute's teaching facilities moved to the Oriental Institute, which
had been established as a centre for teaching and research in the history, art,
thought, languages and literature of Asia.
Today research on Contemporary India is thriving within the University, with
specialists across the Social Sciences Division in the departments of
International Development, Politics and International Relations, Sociology,
Economics, the Faculty of Law, the Schools of Anthropology and
Interdisciplinary Area Studies, the Environmental Change Institute, in the
Humanities Division, in the Faculty of Oriental Studies and modern History and
in the medical Sciences Division in Public Health.
The Bodleian Library’s Indian Institute Library has one of the largest collections of books on India in the country and it also houses an extensive collection of primary sources and official publications that will provide material for student dissertations. In addition, the Social Science library is one of the world’s greatest such libraries and a number of departmental libraries Modern History, the Geography holdings in the Radcliffe Science Library and Anthropology - have good holdings on India.
A rich seminar programme at the University provides ample opportunity for Masters students to mix with active researchers and doctoral students. The longstanding research seminar in Contemporary South Asia (co-organised with research students) runs weekly through the year; annual South Asia Day workshops focussing on contemporary India have also been organised for many years and Indian topics are frequently addressed in a variety of other seminar series such as the Department of International Developments Research Seminar and the Seminar in Forced Migration; the Department of Politics and International Relations Global Economic Governance Seminar and occasional speaker series and its Reuters Programme for the Study of Journalism seminar; Economics Oxonia series; the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology’s anthropology seminar, the Environmental Change Institute and the S Asia Work in Progress meetings at Wolfson College. Students are generally welcomed at visiting lectures, workshops and conferences. Some seminars specifically provide opportunity for informal contacts at inclusive post-seminar drinks or meals. The large number of students conducting doctoral research on India in different departments ensures valuable networks, and points of reference, for Masters students.
The OxfordIndia Forum links the university with a wider range of scholars interested in India from medicine to literature and from Oxford University to Oxford Brookes University and interested members of the general public. All of these activities will enable Masters students to enhance their learning and to explore wider research networks - such as the lively British Association of South Asian Studies.
