Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD) is a state university established in 2008 to promote teaching and learning in the humanities and social sciences with equal emphasis on academic rigor and social inclusion. There is a significant overlap between HAB and AUD visions, especially around humanistic knowledge production, fostering creative pedagogical practices and linking academic knowledge production to the experiences and needs of wider communities.

At AUD, HAB 2.0 is planned principally as a partnership between two units of the university, the Centre for Community Knowledge (which anchored AUD’s participation in HaB 1.0) and the School of Global Affairs (SGA). These two units have already collaborated in the creation and piloting of field-oriented curricula for SGA students as well as in research on agricultural environments in the urban peripheries of Delhi.  A key objective of HAB 2.0 at AUD is to strengthen a transnational humanities perspective of SGA’s undergraduate and graduate programs in Global Studies and Urban Studies.  HAB 2.0 will facilitate cooperation among faculty members and researchers from several AUD schools and research centers in order to ensure the institutional afterlife of HAB 2.0.

An emphasis of AUD’s participation in HAB 2.0 will be curriculum development, piloting and institutionalization of interdisciplinary humanities, as well as reaching out to broader publics. We anticipate the collaborative development of field-modules and creative methodologies to critically examine and document everyday lives and practices of a range of neighborhoods and communities. These modules will be part of the curriculum for AUD students. Based on these learnings, we will offer summer/winter schools to students from partner (and other) institutions, particularly from India and the Southeast Asian region. In cooperation with the AUD international affairs division, HAB 2.0 at AUD will host visiting faculty from across the HAB network to co-teach courses and participate in HAB summer/winter schools. Through these initiatives, we will learn from and also share insights and tools with community practitioners and organizers, broadening the outreach activities of our university.   Thus, will HaB 2.0 help bridge gaps between academic research and people’s knowledge as well as span international boundaries.

Contact Persons:

Prof. Denys Leighton, Director, Centre for Community Knowledge
Dr. Dharitri Narzary Chakravarty, Assistant Professor