Background

Graduates from Nepal’s university system have for long been poorly equipped in intellectually tackling contemporary social issues and processes, both in the Nepali and general contexts, with objective, analytical and historically-informed perspectives. This shortcoming has not only deprived them of successfully competing, in more intellectually demanding job openings, with colleagues and peers trained elsewhere, but also retarded the development of a knowledge-oriented, broad-visioned Nepali society. Many social scientists are of the view that Nepal’s current social and political problems can be ultimately traced to the poor quality of the social sciences in the over-all educational system of the country.

Goal

This Immersion Course has as its goal a contribution towards helping make up for the lack of exposure to the social sciences in the Nepali educational system.

Objectives

The general objective of this course is to enable Nepali graduates to both intellectually comprehend contemporary social issues through a broad exposure to the humanities and the social sciences, and develop into socially-aware professionals in their respective fields. Specifically, the course aims at enabling students to:

• Analyse issues of contemporary social concern

• Develop a capacity for synthesizing ideas

• Review critically research papers, articles and books

• Prepare research articles

• Identify research problems and prepare proposals

• Conduct social investigations

• Make effective presentations

Approach

The Immersion course involves an orientation to the social sciences (or sociology and anthropology) followed by rigorous instructions on specific areas chosen mainly from, but not restricted to, the following subjects: education, history, law, development, ethnicity, media, gender, technology, health, religion, philosophy, globalization, religion and politics. It pays special attention to the mutuality between the issues studied and society. The four-month training ends with a practical exposure to social research. Classes rely less on lectures and more on seminars and reading, writing and field-based assignments. Students will need to put in a couple of hours of study every day to participate actively and cogently in class. They will also be required to regularly prepare, either individually or in a group, for frequent classroom presentations.

Conducted by
Social Science Baha