HS 853 Modern: Ideas & Contexts

201
6

Introduction
It is now commonplace to begin any thinking about the modern by marking its
capaciousness; by announcing that we are helpless around its multiple and changing
significations. In some constitutive sense, perhaps, we are all modern, whether it is a
disposition and/or characteristic of the individuals. Given that, is it best to approach the
modern as a normative ideal or as a historical phenomenon? Or, is it a certain
configuration of the institutional order? These are questions on which it is difficult to take
explicit positions.
The introductory segment (over six sessions) strives to get a handle on this debate and
to introduce some key terms through which we will investigate the modern.
In this years instalment of the course, we propose to grapple with the modern through
three categories: as
1) institution
2) value and
3) practice
Further, we propose to focus particularly on one institutionthe marketplace; one
valueautonomy and one practiceself-making

Course Details
This, along with the readings will be furnished by individual instructors

Evaluation
If learning to do research can be thought of as comprising
a) operationalizing a vague thought into a researchable question,
b) bringing together a coherent and focused set of scholarship on the question
c) producing and engaging with data, and finally
d) analyze and work towards an argument
Our evaluation in this course is geared towards getting you to doing these tasks in both
disparate and consolidated fashion.
You will be called upon to do
a) 4 assignments (2 for ramesh; 1 for sharmila)
b) 1 project (jointly evaluated)

ASSIGNMENT 1: [ramesh] will be announced.

Instructors: Ramesh, sharmila

HS 853 Modern: Ideas & Contexts

201
6

ASSIGNMENT 2: [sharmila] Close reading + discourse analysis

(15 marks)
You will be given a text, which you will be called upon to read closely. Also, further, you
will be called upon to analyze it through the categories of institution, value and
practice that the course has laid out.
PROJECT
(40
marks)
The project will stretch over the duration of the course. It is designed to lead you through
the preliminary tasks involved in formulating a research problem.
Task 1a: Keeping your research interest in focus, choose any one theme from the
following list.
family, law, education, literature, culture,
technology, bureaucracy, press, religion, ethics
Task 1b: write out your first thoughts and ambitions for a project. Post it on moodle
and respond to each others ideas.
(no marks; Deadline 18.01.16)
Task 2: Prepare an annotated bibliography of the readings that you think will help
you navigate your project; submit on moodle
(5 marks; Deadline 01.02.16)
Task 3a: Formulate you research questions, objectives and problem in a manner that
is coherent,
focused and do-able
Task 3b: Workshop your research formulation; each of you will be called upon to
make a presentation and also be assigned as a discussant to a peers project; you will
also be called upon to respond to all the projects presented
(8 marks; Deadline 15.02.16)
Task 4: Undertake an indicative (rather than exhaustive) literature survey; choose 45 essays circulate the list to the group beforehand; submit your report on moodle.
(10 marks; 15.03.16)
Task 5: Re-formulate your problem in the light of your review of existing scholarship
so that you can highlight how it draws from and contributes to this scholarship. We will
workshop your revised formulation together
(6 marks; Deadline 01.04.16)
Task 6: Make your final submission on moodle.
(6 marks; Deadline 16.04.16)
Peer discussion (at various time-points): 5 marks

Instructors: Ramesh, sharmila