Department of Sociology & Anthropology - 51²è¹Ý

51²è¹Ý

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Department of Sociology & Anthropology

The Department of Sociology and Anthropology builds on the unique relationship between Sociology and Social anthropology as it has developed and flourished over time. We emphasise the critical empiricism, theoretical engagement and comparative approach central to our best disciplinary traditions. Our department encourages interdisciplinary explorations with allied fields of social thought and inquiry, including history, economics, political science, geography, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, environmental studies, computer science, planning and design, natural sciences, arts and aesthetics, law and media. Some of the areas and themes the faculty work on are contested borderlands, agricultural markets and exchange, mental health clinics, regional cinema audiences, political economy of water, food, hazards and disasters, rivers and islands, infrastructure and informality, anthropology of literature, philosophical anthropology, cities and environment, and the state, bureaucracy, law and violence.

Our department acknowledges the similarities between the disciplines of Sociology and Anthropology. Going beyond stereotypes of the sociologist conducting surveys in a city and the anthropologist doing fieldwork in a remote village, we recognize that both Sociology and Anthropology study relations between the personal and the
political, the micro and the macro, and the individual and the institutional. Sociology and Anthropology teach us to challenge and refine our taken-for-granted cultural assumptions by attempting to understand those of others.

We offer both undergraduate and graduate programmes of study. Our undergraduate programme consists of a major, minor and concentration in Sociology and Anthropology. Our graduate programme consists of a five-year Ph.D. programme with two years of coursework included.

Programmes

Faculty at Sociology & Anthropology

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Please join us for the final talk of the year in the Department of Sociology-Anthropology Colloquium. Our guest speaker is Prof. Erica Bornstein from the University of Oregon, USA. 

Professor Bornstein's talk will explore the issue of nonprofit regulation in India in relation to current global trends. Based on her recent book, A Revolution of Rules, she will discuss her research findings and the methodological challenges of studying regulatory processes ethnographically. 

Bio: Erica Bornstein is Professor of Anthropology at University of Oregon. Her research interests include economic development and philanthropy, non-governmental and nonprofit organizations, voluntary sector regulation, and humanitarianism. She is the author of three monographs: A Revolution of Rules: The Regulatory Reform of India’s Nonprofit Sector (Stanford 2025); Disquieting Gifts: Humanitarianism in New Delhi (Stanford 2012), and The Spirit of Development: Protestant NGOs, Morality, and Economics in Zimbabwe (Stanford 2005). She is also the coeditor of Forces of Compassion: Humanitarianism Between Ethics and Politics (School for Advanced Research Press, 2011).

Book abstract:

What is it about nonprofits that inspires so many to passionately support their agendas and others to adamantly seek their control? In India, laws regulating the nonprofit sector were dramatically reformed between 2010-2020, reconfiguring relationships between corporations, nonprofits, and the government. Thousands of nonprofits, including powerful NGOs, lost their ability to receive foreign funding, and in 2015 dozens more were put on a state-sponsored watch list. While many assume that nonprofits are defined by the causes they champion, A Revolution of Rules argues that the nonprofit form is shaped by its regulation, in a dynamic process of democratic and political negotiation. The scrutiny of nonprofits must be understood in the global context of political judicialization and regulatory reform, and the shrinking global stage for rights-based work. 

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Please join us for the final talk of the year in the Department of Sociology-Anthropology Colloquium. Our guest speaker is Prof. Erica Bornstein from the University of Oregon, USA. 

Professor Bornstein's talk will explore the issue of nonprofit regulation in India in relation to current global trends. Based on her recent book, A Revolution of Rules, she will discuss her research findings and the methodological challenges of studying regulatory processes ethnographically. 

Bio: Erica Bornstein is Professor of Anthropology at University of Oregon. Her research interests include economic development and philanthropy, non-governmental and nonprofit organizations, voluntary sector regulation, and humanitarianism. She is the author of three monographs: A Revolution of Rules: The Regulatory Reform of India’s Nonprofit Sector (Stanford 2025); Disquieting Gifts: Humanitarianism in New Delhi (Stanford 2012), and The Spirit of Development: Protestant NGOs, Morality, and Economics in Zimbabwe (Stanford 2005). She is also the coeditor of Forces of Compassion: Humanitarianism Between Ethics and Politics (School for Advanced Research Press, 2011).

Book abstract:

What is it about nonprofits that inspires so many to passionately support their agendas and others to adamantly seek their control? In India, laws regulating the nonprofit sector were dramatically reformed between 2010-2020, reconfiguring relationships between corporations, nonprofits, and the government. Thousands of nonprofits, including powerful NGOs, lost their ability to receive foreign funding, and in 2015 dozens more were put on a state-sponsored watch list. While many assume that nonprofits are defined by the causes they champion, A Revolution of Rules argues that the nonprofit form is shaped by its regulation, in a dynamic process of democratic and political negotiation. The scrutiny of nonprofits must be understood in the global context of political judicialization and regulatory reform, and the shrinking global stage for rights-based work. 

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Contact Us

For any queries regarding Sociology & Anthropology programmes, please contact: -

Ravindran Sriramachandran

Head of Department

ravindran.sriramachandran@ashoka.edu.in

Can Evren

Ph.D. Coordinator

can.evren@ashoka.edu.in

Kathryn Hardy

ASP Coordinator

kathryn.hardy@ashoka.edu.in

Nishita Trisal

Faculty Colloquium Coordinator

nishita.trisal@ashoka.edu.in

Pratima Kadian

Department Manager

pratima.kadian@ashoka.edu.in

Aditi Karanam

Student Representative

soa.rep@ashoka.edu.in

Madiha Tariq

Student Representative

soa.rep@ashoka.edu.in

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