Launched in April 2025 by the UChicago Center in Delhi, the Chicago School of Thought is a virtual workshop series spotlighting research methodologies across the social sciences and humanities. Featuring faculty from the University of Chicago and Indian academic institutions, the sessions offer nuanced discussions on emerging, interdisciplinary approaches to research.
In the inaugural session, UChicago alumnus and Professor of Political Science Professor Asha Sarangi (Jawaharlal Nehru University) explored methodological pluralism in the Political Science. The second session focused on ethical and community-based methods in social work, especially in relation to vulnerable populations, and featured Professors Lisa Moore (UChicago) and Shewli Kumar (TISS). The third session featured Professor Tista Bagchi (UChicago alumnus; University of Delhi) and Professor Anastasia Giannakidou (UChicago) delved into research methods in linguistics, touching on Indian grammatical traditions, empirical methods, AI, and computational linguistics. The fourth session featured Professors Kaushik Sunder Rajan (UChicago) and Lawrence Liang (Ambedkar University Delhi) in a compelling dialogue on constitutionalism in post-apartheid South Africa and postcolonial India, examining how ethnographic research and legal theory intersect. The most recent session in the series featured a conversation on methodologies and fieldwork in development economics with Srini Vasudevan (UChicago) and Chinmaya Kumar (UChicago alumnus; Azim Premji University). This growing series continues to serve as a vibrant platform for methodological reflection, interdisciplinarity, and scholarly exchange. Recordings of all sessions are available on the UChicago Center in Delhi’s YouTube channel.
