With a long and rich history of Philosophy discipline in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, it offers an exciting bunch of undergraduate and postgraduate courses focusing on a broad range of interests from core philosophical approaches to contemporary and interdisciplinary aspects. Such a blend provides comprehensive dimensions to students’ overall academic and social development.

While postgraduate courses focus on the in-depth research on ancient, classical, and contemporary debates and issues in philosophical scenarios; the undergraduate courses (lectures/ tutorials) deal with a broader framework to enhance and inculcate the conceptual clarity and critical thinking among the students. The philosophical engagement allows them to revisit the arguments, phenomena, language, science at meta-level inquiries.

Philosophy at IIT Kanpur

Our faculty broadly work in Aesthetics, Epistemology, Ethics, Evolutionary Epistemology, Existentialism, Gandhi Studies, Logic, Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Cognition, Philosophy of Creativity, Philosophy of Language, Philosophical Logic, Philosophy of Mind, Political Philosophy. We have a strong Ph.D. program with graduate students writing their theses on various philosophical issues. Our undergraduate courses acquaint students with a variety of philosophical perspectives, encourage them to think critically and apply them to their academic and life endeavours.

The English discipline at IIT Kanpur is a unique blend of Literature, Linguistics and ELT streams. While the discipline’s flagship programme remains the Ph.D, it offers a range of electives in literature, linguistics and ELT/ESL studies for undergraduate majors in Engineering and Science. It also offers Minors in Literature and Linguistics for students looking for an extended engagement with the subjects. The discipline serves the cause of liberal education in broadening students’ intellectual horizons through exposing them not only to different bodies of knowledge, but also to different ways of knowing and applying that knowledge.

Teaching

The Literature division offers a wide variety of electives for the undergraduates and specialized courses for doctoral candidates in English. While drawing largely on the canonical and noncanonical texts in Anglo-American and World Literatures in English, these courses aim to train students in ways of negotiating various literary traditions and cultural diversity. Seeking to inculcate analytical and critical thinking skills in its learners, the Literature courses primarily expose them to literary texts and theories and thereby encourage lucid writing practices besides involving them in theatre, literary discussion clubs, and creative writing workshops. The doctoral students, especially, are acquainted with current areas of research as well as the latest theories and advancements in existing fields and thus are trained to be research scholars of high calibre and competent teachers. 

The postgraduate teaching programme in Linguistics addresses issues of contemporary relevance in the field with emphasis on an interdisciplinary perspective on language. The Linguistics programme at this institute is perhaps the only one in the country that offers a variety of courses at the undergraduate level. Apart from introducing students to the issues of language structure and use, Linguistics courses sensitise them to a variety of issues concerning cognitive underpinnings of language and language-society interface. 

The ELT stream offers postgraduate courses in syllabus development, applied linguistics, second language acquisition and language assessment among others. The focus is on teaching English in Indian contexts. The undergraduate courses focus on advanced language skills such as academic reading and writing, and also introduce basics of second language acquisition theories. 

All three streams pool their resources together in offering the undergraduates instruction in English Language and Communication Skills, Communication Skills: Composition, and Preparatory English for those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

Research

The English Discipline has a dynamic research programme. 

The Literature faculty currently focuses on the following research areas: 

• African American Literature
• American Literature
• The Anthropocene Literature
• British Literature
• Climate Fiction and Films
• Cultural Studies
• Cyberpunk Literature
• Dalit Literature
• Feminist Theory and Literature
• Film Studies
• Indian Literature and Aesthetics
• Indian Writing in English
• Jewish Literature
• Literature and the Environment
• Literature in Translation
• Modernist/Postmodernist Theory and Literature
• Postcolonial Theory and Literature
• Posthuman Theory and Literature

The research carried out by the literature faculty in these areas focuses on the cultural, historical, theoretical, pedagogical, and textual perspectives. Insights that accrue from such scholarship invigorate both our undergraduate and graduate literature courses by ensuring that instruction is informed by the most current and relevant disciplinary knowledge. 

The Linguistics faculty focuses on the following research areas: 

• Cognitive Linguistics
• Discourse Semantics
• Generative Grammar
• Language Acquisition and Evolution
• Lexical Semantics
• Lexical Semantics
• Computational Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• South Asian Linguistics
• Language Documentation and Description
• Linguistic Typology
• Dravidian Linguistics
• Historical Linguistics

The ELT faculty focuses on the following research areas: 

• Instructed second language acquisition
• Syllabus design
• Task-based language teaching and learning
• Language assessment

The research in these areas focuses primarily on English as a second language in Indian contexts. An attempt is made to draw on theories of linguistics and education and apply them to pedagogic contexts. The ELT faculty is involved in supervising research in applied linguistics, classroom-based language assessment, task-based language teaching and its interface with current developments in linguistics and education, form focus in ESL contexts, etc. 

Service 

The English discipline as a whole involves itself with various administrative responsibilities and initiatives consistent with a programme of academic counselling, student support and faculty governance. 

The discipline of Fine Arts strives to bring together artistic practice and art historical research to serve a twofold function: engaging undergraduate students across the institute with the practice and historical development in this field and offering a rigorous, multifaceted experience to the doctoral students of the discipline. Fine Arts started as a discipline of study in IIT Kanpur in the early 1970s and flourished in the subsequent decades. Collaboration with students from the various departments and professionals in the field remained a constant for the discipline. The introduction of the Ph.D. program in 2015 further expanded the growth of Fine Arts, HSS. It is so far the only IIT that offers a doctoral program in this area.

The undergraduate courses offered by the discipline are thoughtfully constructed to introduce the most recent art-historical studies to a diverse group of students while familiarizing them with the materials and techniques of artmaking. The courses cover a wide range of topics such as the overview of the art of the Indian subcontinent and the West, Contemporary Indian Art, Modern Western Art, Chinese and Japanese cinema, American films, Art appreciation, and art criticism.

The postgraduate program in Fine Arts presents an inimitable opportunity to students with fine arts and art history backgrounds where they develop critical tools of analyzing artworks and habitual practices while situating their research in relation to the ongoing scholarship in the field alongside their art practice. The discipline is among a handful in India that promotes the simultaneity of art practice and art historical research in a Ph.D. program.

The enrolled Ph.D. students have access to the Fine Arts Lab to carry out individual and collective practices. The doctoral students are encouraged to participate in national and international conferences and workshops. The discipline also offers fully-funded postdoctoral positions. The applications are open all year round.

The doctoral studies in Fine Arts aim to bridge the long-standing gap between scholarship and professional studio practice in India and beyond.

• Syllabus for PhD (Fine-Arts) Entrance Examination for Applicants with/without Fine Arts Background