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BA Liberal Arts

Course Structure

Basic Framework

Units of the Course Structure

The three year BA Liberal Arts course is woven using the following pedagogical units.

Core Papers

Following subjects will be offered as Core Papers and they will be spread over the first five semesters. Together these compulsory papers cover a broad conceptual ground in Humanities and Sciences.Each paper is expected to offer an interdisciplinary orientation within the limits of its core concepts and issues. The titles of the papers are subject to minor modification.
  1. History of Ideas: This paper will introduce students to the history of modern India through the framework of the history of Ideas or Intellectual History. The period covered will be roughly 1850 to 1950.
  2. Foundations of Social Theory: The objective of the paper is to give a broad orientation of basic concepts and perspectives in Sociology (with comparatively more emphasis on Indian context). The paper seeks to enable the students to develop a basic understanding of some core social issues and practices in light of some important perspectives/ theories.
  3. Logic & Critical Thinking: The paper aims to introduce some basic concepts in logic and  critical thinking as required for sound argument in academic field. By introducing various forms of assumptions, reasoning, analysis and arguments, the paper aims to enable students to understand and practice critical mode of thinking.
  4. Democracy- Principles & Practices: The paper aims to create an informed understanding     of the need for governance systems along with their core principles, to get a systemic knowledge of the Indian constitution and the Indian Democracy and to develop a critical viewpoint to understand and assess the Indian democratic experience.
  5. Economics: Concepts & Thoughts: The paper aims to  introduce core concepts and ideas in economics, to explain the nature of linkages those exist in any economy and to acquaint with broad functioning of any economy.
  6. History of Science: This paper aims to apprise the students and make them aware of the interactive relationship between science and society since the early times. The rationale is that the scientific knowledge of man and the way it brought transition in the pattern of man’s life and thought is relevant for getting a firm hold on the generation of knowledge in disciplinary spaces.
  7. Introduction to Research Methodology: The paper would take up basic concepts, elements, process and basic orientation of some of the widely practiced methods in social studies. The approach is to help students develop an interface between research issues and methods. The course aims to enable students to prepare a detailed research design for a small research project.
  8. Applied Ethics: The paper introduces the basic idea of ethics and its applications in some areas of daily life. The paper begins with a brief conceptual discussion of ethics in Indian and Western contexts. Then it takes up the application of ethics in of Medical, Media and Professional fields. It also discusses the application of ethics in Environment as well as public and private spaces.
  9. Law and Everyday Life: This paper aims to understand the importance of law’s and their socio-legal impact and also to acquaint the student with the relevancy of different law in respect of implementing the citizen’s rights and in getting remedies.

Subjects for 'Major'

Following subjects are included in the list of ‘Major’ for the course. Each ‘Major’ subject will be covered in 10 papers spread across four semesters (from 3rd to 6th Sem). Each ‘Major’ subject should include one paper on Research Method catering to its subject specific needs. Depending on the response, feedback and availability of resources, the following list could be changed at a later stage.
  1. Business Administration
  2. Economics
  3. English
  4. Environment and Sustainability
  5. Health Science
  6. Media and Communication Studies
  7. Political Science
  8. Psychology
  9. Sociology
  10. Statistics
A ‘Major’ subject will be conducted if a minimum of 13 students opt it for their ‘Major’ for a class of 40 students. In case, no paper reaches the adequate number, the Major could be decided by calculating the overall weightage it received as Major and Minor. The Head of IDSS will take the final call on the number of Major and Minor to run for the concerned batch by considering the available infrastructure, resources, and number of students.

Subjects for 'Minor'

Following subjects are included in the list of independent ‘Minor’ for the course. Each ‘Minor’ subject will be covered in 5 papers spread across four semesters (from 3rd to 6th Sem). Depending on the response, feedback and availability of resources, the following list could be changed at a later stage. Besides the following independent ‘Minors’, students can also opt for one subject from the list of ‘Major’ as ‘Minor’ and will take up ‘appropriate’ five papers from that Subject. The condition of minimum student will not be applicable for such Minor subject.
  1. Anthropology
  2. Commerce
  3. Counselling
  4. Education
  5. Entrepreneurship
  6. Environment Studies
  7. Foreign Language- German/French
  8. Geography
  9. Indian Language- Hindi/Urdu
  10. Law
  11. Marathi
  12. Network Media Studies
  13. Philosophy
  14. Theatre
  15. Urban Studies
  16. Women and Gender Studies
An independent ‘Minor’ subject will be conducted if a minimum of 13 students opt it for their ‘Minor’ in a class of 40 students. In case, no paper reaches the adequate number, the Minor could be decided by calculating the overall weightage it received (including it also as a Major).The Head of Department will take the final call on the number of Major and Minor to run for the concerned batch by considering the available infrastructure, resources, and number of students.

Elective Papers

Following subjects are included in the list of independent ‘Elective’. An ‘Elective’subject will be conducted if a minimum of 13 students opt it as their‘Elective’. In case, no paper reaches the adequate number, the Elective could be decided by calculating the overall weightage it received. The Head of Department will take the final call on the number of Electives to run for the concerned batch by considering the available infrastructure, resources, and number of students.
  1. Cyber Security
  2. Evolution
  3. Film Appreciation
  4. Folk Art in India
  5. Gender and Life Narratives
  6. Heritage Studies
  7. Human Health
  8. Human Rights
  9. Indian Constitution
  10. Indian Writing in English
  11. Literature and Films
  12. Literature in Indian Language
  13. Modern Indian Thinkers
  14. Personal Finance
  15. Popular Music
  16. Quantitative Reasoning
  17. Religious Studies
  18. Rhetoric
  19. Science in Practice
  20. Social Media Marketing
  21. Sports & Media
  22. Understanding Taxes
  23. Visual Art
  24. Women and Development
  25. Yoga
Depending on the response, feedback and availability of resources, the following list could be changed at a later stage. Besides the following independent‘Electives’, students can also take papers from Undergraduate courses on campus as their ‘Elective’ or mapped and approved online course.  Additionally, new ‘Electives’ can be floated depending on proposals received from teachers.

Skill Based Papers

Following subjects are proposed for inclusion in the list of ‘Skill based Papers’ for the course. These papers are of 2 credits. A ‘Skill Based’ paper will be conducted if a minimum of 13 students opt it. In case, no paper reaches the adequate number, the Skill Based Paper could be decided by calculating the overall weightage it received.The Head of Department will take the final call on the number of Skill Based Papers to run for the concerned batch by considering the available infrastructure, resources, and number of students.
  1. Anchoring
  2. Basic Web Designing
  3. Business Software- Excel
  4. Business Software- Tally
  5. Creative Writing
  6. Formal & Applied Writing
  7. Image Software- Photoshop & CoreDRAW
  8. Instructional Design
  9. Photography
  10. Presentation Skills
  11. Sound Recording & Editing
  12. Technical Writing
A ‘Skill’ subject will be conducted if a minimum of 14 students (in a class of 40 students). opt for it. Depending on the response, feedback and availability of resources the subjects could be added or deleted from the list.

Experience Based Papers

Students can complete all the 5 experience-based papers by taking up one or more from the following options. Internship,Tour/Visit, Community engagement carried out during vacation period will be considered for credit calculation in the next semester. Workshop/ Tour/Visit during the semester will be considered for credit calculation for the same semester.
  1. Internship: A full time engagement/work in an industrial/ professional/ NGO/ Community/ Educational set up/ Laboratory for a period of minimum 3 continuous weeks will be considered as an internship. While IDSS would help/guide students for getting the internship, the final responsibility of securing internship lies with the student. Any cost incurred for internship should be borne by the student.
  2. Workshop: Students can participate in an intensive workshop organised by or recognized by IDSS/ other Departments on SPPU campus. The theme of the workshop should be relevant to the subject under the course. The workshop should be of minimum 15 hours. Expenses towards attending workshop- except the one organized by IDSS- should be borne by the students. The evaluation of student’s engagement with workshop is based on the evidence of attendance, documentation of experience by student, assessment or certification by the supervisor and a viva-voce by Departmental panel.
  3. Study Tour/Visit: Participation in the official study tour/visits organised by IDSS can be considered as equivalent to one experiential paper. The evaluation of student’s quality of participation will be based on the conduct during the tour/visit, documentation of experience by student and a viva-voce by Departmental panel.
  4. Community Work: Students individually or in a group can take up a planned community work for minimum of 100 hours. Evaluation of student’s work will be based on the planning, execution and documentation of work, and a viva-voce by Departmental panel.

Projects

Depending on the subjects taught during the semester students can carry out projects on any one of the following themes. All the projects till 6th semester will be group project wherein the group size should not exceed 4. The 6th semester project will be an individual project based on the ‘Major’ subject.
Project for 1 or 2 credit could be based on-
  • Survey of media coverage of a given topic.
  • Developing bibliography on a given topic.
  • Descriptive quantitative survey on a social topic/ community / environment issue
  • Thick description of a social phenomenon/ community/ environment issue
  • Review of Literature on a chosen topic
  • Simulating a situation/ Moot court
  • Multi-media content/ Stage-performance
Project for 3 credits could be based on-
  • Developing design/ content/ prototype/ experiment/ performance
  • Developing and executing a campaign
  • Research dissertation

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