Human Ecology is the interdisciplinary study of complex social-ecological issues at multiple spatial scales. Research and teaching at the School of Human Ecology brings together ideas, methodologies and toolkits from disciplines in the natural sciences and social sciences to understand interactions between the biophysical environment and human society. The School’s thematic focus areas include environmental change, biodiversity conservation, ecological restoration, rural and urban transformations, environmental and social impact assessment and public health. The School offers a full-time MA programme in Environment and Development (MAED) and a full-time PhD programme in Human Ecology.
Faculty and scholars at the School employ quantitative, qualitative and geospatial methodological frameworks to study complexity and causality in the intertwined lives of humans and other species. The School deploys careful field-based enquiry to study the ‘big questions’ of justice, well-being and sustainability in local, empirical contexts. The agency of humans and nonhumans is explored in ecological and social transformations in South Asia, in the present as well as in the past.
