Human Ecology is the interdisciplinary study of complex socio-ecological issues at multiple spatial scales. Research and teaching at the School of Human Ecology (SHE) brings together ideas, methodologies and toolkits from various disciplines in the natural sciences and social sciences to understand interactions between the environment and human society. The School’s thematic focus areas include environmental change, biodiversity conservation, rural and urban transformations, environmental and social impact assessment and health. The methodological frameworks deployed by scholars and faculty include quantitative, qualitative and geospatial, with the aim of understanding complexity and causality in the intertwined lives of humans and other species. Teaching and research at SHE deploys careful field-based enquiry to study the ‘big questions’ of justice, well-being and sustainability in local, empirical contexts. Human and nonhuman agencies are explored in ecological and social transformations in South Asia, in the present as well as in the past.
