Curriculum

CURRICULUM

Details of Foundation Course

Foundation Courses at SoLS

• South Asia in Global History: This is a survey course that aims to introduce students to the various historical processes that shaped the society, culture, economy and political landscapes of South Asia over two millennia, and especially over the last 1000 years. From ancient times, South Asia had been an important space in a wider world, forming Asia’s vast land bridge between the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean. In fact we realise that after 1500 it becomes even more impractical to separate social change in South Asia from histories that travel the globe. The boundaries that now appear to define the South Asian region and its constituent nation states came into being only recently.Therefore in studying social change in South Asia, including its economic, political, and cultural dimensions, the course will pay attention to the mobility of people, commodities and ideas that have played an important role in shaping the histories of this region.
• Reason and Logic: ‘This sentence is false’. Is that true or false? In this course, students will come up with their own solutions to these by developing their own, precise languages. Further, students will learn to evaluate logics, and see how the history and culture of different parts of the world have shaped thought about logic and reason.
• Writing Seminar I & II: This is a two-semester sequence that aims to help students trust their writing process and with time and practice, develop their unique authorial voice. Critical reading, thinking, writing and speaking are the primary skills that define a Liberal Studies student. The courses are premised on intensive reading, open discussion, active listening, and a commitment to the writing and rewriting process. We will learn that good writing is ultimately an individual and collective effort that stems from the ability to read closely, give and receive feedback with care, and revise drafts. We will pay attention to the multiple meanings and implications of words, how sources are furnished as evidence, styles of narration and the construction of compelling arguments.
• Self and Identity: The course elaborates the relationship between self and identity by posing some broad questions: What constitutes our private, psychic world? How is the psychic world related to the socio-political world in which we live with others? Why do we identify with certain groups and not with others? What do desire, fantasy, love and hate have to do with how we experience the self and the world? We will also try to understand what makes us both unique and normative as individuals and how we navigate class, caste, gender and sexual identities, as well as our personal prejudices and biases in our everyday lives. Through experiential exercises we will reflect on some fundamental questions such as, “Who am I?”; “What makes me, me?”; “How do I relate to myself/others/events?”. We will also analyse selected films and fictional texts to pay attention to how they portray entanglements between psychic, social and historical worlds.
• India and Its Environs: India and its Environ course aims to offer students a broad understanding of how environment shapes our society and how societal development interacts with the environment. We will begin with exploring ecological attributes of India. This exploration will lead us to engage with different concepts of nature across time. Then, we will delve into how colonial period has shaped environment to attain colonizers’ needs. This will help students to understand the way political-economic decisions always have bearings on the environment. Then we will move to the Post-independence of India to discover how the vision of nation building has been planned around India’s natural resources. Students will be encouraged to critically evaluate these strategic plans by extending ethical consideration towards the environment. The course will offer an awareness that the present and future environmental challenges have their roots in the decisions that as a society we have taken in the past.
• Research Methods: In the modern world, anyone who wants to change society for the better must be able to read and understand what constitutes data. This course introduces students to qualitative methods of conducting research and to statistics and data science.
• Paradigms in Science: In this course, students will learn to apply their skills in the liberal arts to understanding science. Delving into science textbooks and historical scientific research papers, they will come to their own conclusions to questions such as: How does the scientific method work? Does science deserve its social prestige? What is the relationship between beauty and truth? How do we interpret the correct interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? Are scientific theories true, or merely useful instruments? Why did Copernicus’s idea develop as it did? By the end of the course, students should be able and comfortable in working towards critically evaluating scientific claims.