Kochi: The Humanities and Social Sciences Entrance Examination (HSEE)-2016, to be conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, for admission to the five-year integrated Master of Arts (M.A) programme at the Institute will be held on April 17, 2016 (Sunday). The details of the Examination will be published soon. The five-year integrated Master of Arts (M.A.) programme is designed to meet the needs of students who seek a broader learning forum and who appreciate the unique design of inter-disciplinary studies. The programme encourages students to engage in critical thinking and research on ideas, people, society and the human condition.
The first two years of the curriculum are common to all the students after which, they branch out into the two streams. Allocation of streams will be based on students’ preferences as well as their academic performance during the first three semesters. The streams offered are Integrated M.A. in Development Studies and Integrated M.A. in English Studies.
The Development Studies stream, addresses questions of ‘order and change’ in a globalizing world and aims to explore available approaches to fostering development, understood broadly as the goal of providing people the freedom to make their lives better. This will entail studying the web of relationships humans have with each other and the physical world, which can serve both as a constraint and a source of enormous creativity and ingenuity for achieving sustainable development. To analyse and address these issues, knowledge and skills from across the social sciences is required, which is what the inter-disciplinary area of Development Studies seeks to do.
It covers topics like economic development, the role of the state and markets, globalization, inequality, poverty, gender relations, environment, conflict, new social movements, politics and institutions etc. Courses include those in economics, urbanization, gender studies and science and technology studies as well as advanced topics in political philosophy and social theory. Graduates have career opportunities in government, academia, research organisations and industry.
The English Studies stream has been designed for students with sensitivity for literary and linguistic analyses. It provides an understanding of literatures in English from around the world with special emphasis on current debates in literary theory, lesser-known literatures and the importance of an interdisciplinary approach. It aims to introduce students to language, literary and cultural studies, with an emphasis on critical reading skills that would stand a student in good stead whatever he/she may eventually do in life.
Starting with introductory courses in the basics of language and literature, the stream covers the masters of English literary tradition, as well as major writers from other traditions-Asian, African, Latin American and Continental. A range of genre-based, author-based and period-based courses are offered so that students appreciate different kinds of literature in English in different periods of its history. Courses in linguistics and the structure and function of natural languages as a system of cognition and communication are parts of this stream. Students are exposed to other Streams such as Economics, Sociology, History, and Philosophy so that they can have a range of career options from academics and editing to journalism and language training.
Website: http://hsee.iitm.ac.in/index.html
