DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY

The Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, founded in 1993 as a unitary University and meant primarily for academic programmes in Social Sciences, Humanities, Performing Arts, and Fine Arts, is the first University in Kerala to have been accredited with A Grade in the UGC National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), and that too, in its very first cycle itself. It has been catering, ever since its inception, to the needs of undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as research scholars in many emerging fields in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies, not represented generally by the universities in Kerala.

The Department of History, with twelve permanent faculty members, thirtyfive research scholars, and one hundred postgraduate students constitutes the biggest concentration of professionals and researchers in History in Kerala. Spread out in five locations in Kerala, with head quarters in Kalady (District Ernakulam), and Regional Centres at Tirur (District Malappuram), Payyannur (District Kannur), Thuravur (District Alappuzha), and Thiruvanthapuram, the Department has been in the forefront of studies in History with emphasis on Early, Medieval and Modern Socio-economic and Cultural Processes; Political Processes, Social Movements and Intellectual Histories; Gender, Dalit and Ecological Histories within the frame of New Social Movements; and Art Historical Studies.

The experienced and reputed teachers with specializations in different branches of historical studies, mentor students and research scholars in their areas of expertise. The academic community of specialists, researchers and students interact in seminars and discussions; visit libraries, archives and museums; meet academics with diverse disciplinary backgrounds at different institutions and sites; make data collections and field visits; make presentations before specialists and often before invited public; publish the results of their researches and studies as monographs and books, and as papers in academic journals and edited volumes.

 

The academic performance of the faculty has won national and international recognition in the form of Doctoral and Post-Doctoral as well as Visiting Fellowships of University Grants Commission, Indian Council of Historical Research, Indo-Sastri Canadian Foundation, Indian Institute of Advanced Study at the Rashtrapati Nivas, and Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Many of them either studied or are associated, with such institutions of higher learning as the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; The British Museum, London; Victoria& Albert Museum, London; Hebrew University, Jerusalem; Central European University, Budapest; Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla; Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi; Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai; Central University of Hyderabad; Kerala Council for Historical Research; Kerala State Department of Archaeology; Kerala State Council for Educational Research & Training; and Kerala State Higher Education Council. Many of them are on the editorial board of academic journals like Advances in Arts & Ideas ISSN 0973-2373 and Social Orbit ISSN 2395-7719, and are associated with professional associations like the South Indian History Congress, Kerala History Congress, Kerala History Conference, Indian Association of Women’s Studies, Kerala Puratattva Samiti/Kerala Archaeological Society, SEERI, the NEEM project at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.