Centre for Study of Cultures, is a centre for excellence, established at Chanakya University to develop appropriate frameworks for studying Indian culture in universities and other higher education institutions. This centre aims at addressing contemporary issues and adequately theorise Indian culture.
Several issues related to Indian society have been debated and discussed for a long time now. Even after long deliberations, the issues remain unresolved. The Social Sciences and Humanities appear to be inadequate to provide appropriate explanatory framework to understand and reflect the nature of Indian society and culture. The ideological claims of the academic community have led to further deepening of the crisis in the society. Thus, there is a sense of urgency to provide an alternative framework for the study of Indian society and traditions. The fact that the social sciences and humanities are part of the European description of India, poses a certain challenge as well as an opportunity, especially for the young Indians. If the crisis must be addressed academically, the role of university becomes very significant. It is exactly this need that, the Centre for Study of Cultures will address. The centre with its competence to offer alternatives in building descriptions of Indian society, will attempt to create a model to the study of Indian traditions inside the universities. This centre takes the comparative approach to study different cultures to address the contemporary needs of India and global challenges faced by humanity.
Purpose:
To establish framework(s) to study Indian traditions in universities.
Goals:
- To set-up an institutional framework where high-quality research could be focused along with training people to become independent researchers.
- To nurture a research culture which would facilitate learning – teaching experience which should be transmitted across the generation to further the institutionalisation of knowledge creation.
- To disseminate knowledge about Indian traditions to different stakeholders (academia, business, government, and society)
Projects:
- Funded Projects
- IKS Project (Funded by IKS Division of AICTE, Ministry of Education, GoI)
- Translation Project (Funded by Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti, Ministry of Education, GoI)
- Collaborative Projects
- Swagrama Fellowship (Funded by Youth for Sewa)
- History Project
- In-house Faculty Projects
- Theorizing Cultural Difference
- Institutions Experience & Literature
- Investigating the Problem of Translation & Bible Translation
- Engaging with Sanskrit Textual Traditions: Artha Shastra, Dharma Shastra and Vyakarana etc.
- In-house Student Projects
- An Enquiry into the Narratives of Bhakti Traditions
- Towards Conceptualising Comparative Politics
- Village Studies
- Historical Sociology of Education & the Problem of Rote Learning
- Understanding Jaati from Few Ancient Texts
- European Experience & the Problem of Reading Indian Texts
Current Activities
With the aim of achieving its goals, the activities of the centre can be well described as follows:
- Developing in-house research – developing research done by the faculty and doctoral students as part of the projects is the central activity of the centre. The research is developed in terms of projects (funded & non-funder or collaborative) mostly in collaboration with institutions and individual scholars.
- Outreach – the centre organizes workshops in collaboration with different institutions, as part of its projects or otherwise, where its content and ideas are articulated among potential research collaborators and among those who are involved in public debates. The members of the centre also deliver lectures and talks on various invited platforms, there by reaches out to the larger scholarly community and to those who are generally interested in academic work done at the centre.
- Publication – the centre also publishes its research outcome periodically in terms of research articles, working papers, edited books, popular writings etc.
- Collaboration – the centre works in collaboration with institutions and individual scholars both in India and from abroad who contribute in shaping the overall academic landscape of the centre.
Curating Courses
The centre is currently working on curating courses which will be designed for the Post Graduation students at Chanakya University in the domain of Translation