Ph.D. in Humanities and Social Sciences
A doctoral research programme that prepares scholars to pursue original inquiry across diverse humanistic and social science disciplines.
Ph.D programme overview
Mahindra University’s Ph.D. in humanities and social sciences is designed for students who wish to undertake deep research at the intersection of culture, society, history, language and human behaviour. The programme supports rigorous academic training and independent research under faculty mentorship, enabling scholars to contribute new knowledge to fields such as literature, sociology, political science, economics, anthropology, history, philosophy, linguistics and education.
Interdisciplinary research opportunities
Engage with wide-ranging subjects across humanities and social sciences, from political thought to cultural studies.
Mentorship by subject experts
Work closely with faculty who bring deep academic and research experience across diverse specialisations.
Original thesis development
Conceptualise and execute an independent research project that contributes to scholarly literature.
Research ecosystem that supports scholarly growth
Participate in seminars, workshops, discourse and collaborative inquiry across schools and disciplines.
Programme details
Eligibility
Minimum qualification required for admission:
- Master’s degree in humanities and social sciences with a minimum CGPA of 6.00 on a 10-point scale or 60% marks in aggregate.
Note: Interested candidates are expected to submit a 500-1000 word proposal with a clear and coherent explanation of the proposed area of research.
Why PhD from MU
- Opportunity to work in a research-oriented environment
- Mentorship by subject experts
- Experiential learning related to research and teachingesearch.
- Full tuition fellowship & stipend for Ph.D. students
Ph.D. Specialisations for Fall 2025 Semester
History
- Indian Ocean history
- Medieval and early modern Indian history
- Gender history of Islamic societies in early modern India
- Law and colonialism
- History of emotions
Anthropology and sociology
- Economic anthropology
- Sociology of migration
- Citizenship and governance
- Political ecology and climate change
Economics
- Political economy
- Macroeconomics
- Labour economics
- Development economics
- Economics of climate change
- Agricultural economics
- Environmental economics
- Energy economics
Philosophy
- Philosophy of logic
- Philosophy of mind
- Philosophy of language
- Consciousness studies
- Cognitive science
- Professional ethics
- Environmental ethics
- Indian philosophy
Education and educational leadership
- School education
- Educational leadership and governance
- Gender and educational leadership
- English language education
- Teacher professional development
- Teaching approaches, methods and strategies
English language teaching and applied linguistics
- English language skills teaching and assessment
- Technology (digital and multimodal) in ESL education
- Intercultural communication
- Materials development in ELT
- Teacher identity and cognition
Literature and cultural studies
- Gender and disability studies in Francophone literature
Cognitive science
- Attention, perception and memory
- Speech perception
- Vision and cognition
- Colour perception
- Role of vision in driving behaviour
- Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive ageing
- Cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics
Linguistics
- Applied linguistics (phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics)
- Sociolinguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Cultural linguistics
- Machine translation and computational linguistics
Important dates
| Last Date for submission of applications | To be announced |
| Shortlisting of candidates for interview | To be announced |
| Ph.D. Entrance Test / Interview | To be announced |
| Announcement of Results | To be announced |
| Commencement of the Fall 2025 Semester Teaching | To be announced |
FAQs
The typical full-time duration aligns with University regulations for doctoral programmes, generally spanning three years or more depending on research progression.
Yes. Scholars with postgraduate qualifications in allied fields such as education, media, cultural studies or interdisciplinary social science areas are eligible, subject to meeting admission criteria.
Doctoral study often includes research methodology preparation and specialised seminars integrated into the research training framework.
Proposals are evaluated on academic merit, clarity of research intent and feasibility prior to interviews with faculty panels.
