The inter-institutional research cluster entitled Integrative Humanities and its proposed activities are premised on the conviction that several fundamental questions in the humanities whose answers otherwise appear elusive can be, at least tentatively, answered through heterodox yet integrated reasoning that cuts across disciplines (philosophy, literature, psychology, and intellectual history being the most pertinent here). In the long run, through its engagement with meta-questions in the humanities, the cluster seeks to offer clarifications on the validity criteria of knowledge in the domain of studia humanitatis. Though substantially different from hard sciences in orientation and methodology, can the humanities ever hope to achieve a grasp over the world of human experience comparable to that which the former have over the natural/physical world?

This research cluster comprises enquiries and explorations into the pedagogy and praxis of English literary studies in India. The thrust area is literary pedagogy - textual canons, critical traditions, and theoretical frameworks. The motivation for this research stems from the crisis of not just English studies but the humanities in general due to the dominance of STEM education. In the Indian context, this crisis has a different trajectory as English has a strong presence in tertiary education (at least in terms of enrolment), due mainly to the market demand for English. Literary studies, however, is plagued by issues of cultural relevance and relatability: debates on why it is taught, what is taught, and how it is to be taught are increasingly challenging in today’s technologized learning environment.

The primary aim of this cluster is in documenting lesser-known languages from South India, such as Kota and Toda in Tamil Nadu, Gadaba and Naiki in Andhra Pradesh, and Koraga and Kuruba in Karnataka. There is no detailed study dealing with all aspects of these languages in a theoretical framework

This cluster envisages an interdisciplinary, international and interculturally oriented investigationinto the salient features of Romanticism presupposing reenactments and remodellings of its diverse elements in (post)modern cultures and practices from the angles of Philosophy, Literature, Ecology and Pedagogy. It studies the streams that distinguish modernities and becomes perceptible in the Romantic movements. Such movements and trends in Europe are sought to be examined comparatively, to explore how Romanticisms emerged, developed, transformed and became revived in different literatures and forms of art and whether there are explicitly practical and also, philosophical versions of Romanticism in the debates that cover the time span attributed to Romanticism in Europe and India, and, also its impact in the later periods. For many contemporary students and researchers, this term is granted for a static phenomenon that only has links to a historical past. That past is the time of August W. Schlegel, Novalis, Friedrich Schlegel, Tieck und Eichendorff, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Chateaubriand etc. when the discussions laid the basis of the concept of Romanticism.