Sociology helps form a critical outlook
BA (Honours) Sociology at the University of Delhi under Choice-Based Credit System involves 14 core courses, four discipline specific electives (DSE) out of eight listed courses, and four generic elective courses offered by other departments in the college. Students may also opt for dissertation/project work in lieu of one DSE in the sixth Semester. Besides these, there are two ability enhancement courses (AEC) and two skill enhancement courses (SEC) in the first two years.
During the first two semesters, four core courses introduces students to the conceptual foundations of sociology and the study of Indian society. During the third and fourth semesters, they are familiarised with the study of key areas of social life such as family and kinship; the economic, religious and political spheres; the question of social inequalities and gender. In the last two semesters, they study sociological theories and techniques of sociological research over four courses. In the last two semesters, students also have to choose four DSEs from a list of eight — agrarian sociology, urban sociology, sociology of work, environmental sociology, sociology of health and medicine, visual cultures, Indian sociological theories and reading ethnographies.
The course is designed to make students well-versed with the discipline’s historical evolution, key concepts and theories, and major sociological studies. It aims at inculcating a critical outlook and imparting elementary skills to carry out sociological research. The two SECs on reading, writing and reasoning in Sociology, and ethnographic film-making provide students with skills to interpret texts, write cogently, and acquire rudiments of the art of seeing and representing the social world through the sociological lens.