RASHTRASANT TUKADOJI MAHARAJ NAGPUR UNIVERSITY

About Us

The Department of Sociology was established in the year 1964 with Professor B.G. Mohoni, an ardent scholar in and exponent of Indian Society, as its founder head. Then in the year 1965, Dr. T.N. Valunjkar, an expert in classical sociological tradition and a student of Professor Irawati Karve, a pioneering figure in Indian Sociology, took over the charge of the department from Professor B.G. Mohoni as Professor and head. He nurtured the department and took care of it for over 18 long years before leaving for Pune University in the year 1983. The department was again looked after by Professor B.G. Mohoni till Dr. P.L. Bhandarkar, a brilliant scholar in all branches and streams of sociological theory, a teacher par excellence and a keen researcher in multidisciplinary fields, who also became the Vice-Chancellor of Nagpur University in 1990, joined the department and assumed its responsibility as Professor and head in the year 1985. After Dr. Bhandarkar was offered the post of Director, Academic Staff College, by the then Vice-Chancellor in 1988, the department was left to be taken care of by Dr. T.G. Meshram. Subsequently, in the year 1996, Dr. P.S. Bobde, a senior faculty of Hislop College’s Sociology Department joined the department as Professor and head and continued to work for the academic development of the department till Dr. B.K. Swain assumed the onus of the department as the head in the year 2001. Since then the department is being looked after by Dr. Swain till the 2021. At present Dr. Ashok T. Borker, is Head at the Department. All the above persons in their capacity as Professor and head have put in utmost efforts in providing academic leadership for the growth and development of the department. Over the years the department has maintained the of excellence in teaching, research and personal guidance to students for career choice and advancement. The department has more than 4000 alumnus spread over the country, engaging in varied professional, administrative, business, teaching and research assignments.

The department of sociology since its inception in 1964 started operating from the University library building at Ramdaspeth, Nagpur, and continued to be there till the present University campus came into existence and became ready to house it along with all other P.G. Departments during the academic session 1971-1972. The department started with P.G. two years programme of traditional/annual pattern. Initially, the syllabus comprised only eight compulsory papers, four in each year. This practice of teaching only compulsory papers i.e. restricting the scope of sociology to few selected areas and thereby disallowing the students to get exposed to diverse and varied fields or areas of their interest was continued till 2011. In 2012, when University introduced and implemented the semester pattern examination, the syllabi of the department went through significant changes in the direction of incorporating the latest advances in the discipline of sociology. Each of the four semesters now contains two compulsory papers and two groups of optional papers, thus leaving a greater leeway for students to have broad choice to opt for a paper of their interest.

Over the passage of time research has been much emphasized along with the class room teaching. There has a considerable change in the techniques and methods of teaching. No more the teachers depend solely on the teaching directly supported by writing on blackboard certain keywords or points relating to certain issues or phenomena or subject matter under discussion. The teachers now are using more extensively the facilities like class room interactive boards and power point presentations to make teaching more effective and fruitful. In addition, the departmental workshops, student seminars and lectures delivered by the invited guest faculty go a long way in keeping the students in touch with the emerging issues and problems having societal concerns.

VISION:

Department envisions to offer socially responsive education through quality learning with social cause and rigorous applied research with excellence at par to contribute to society.

MISSION:

Department’s Mission is to construct meaningful sociological knowledge through encouragement to pursuit of socially responsible scholarship and to show strong commitment to excellence in teaching to facilitate the development of skilled human resource.