Ashoka University welcomes applications for AshokaX

New Delhi: Ashoka University has launched The Academy, the premier programme under Ashoka X, an online collection of learning content from academics and experts across the world. Starting June 29th, The Academy will deliver high-quality courses to select groups of committed learners by combining Ashoka University’s rigorous pedagogy with the expertise of some key academics. In its first edition, 15 courses in liberal arts and sciences will be open to all. In consideration of current economic circumstances, AshokaX will provide 50% scholarship to all learners in the first batch.

Built on a robust intellectual foundation, AshokaX intends to further Ashoka University’s mission to be inclusive, innovative, and diverse in its offerings. It hopes to transform traditional learning experiences by bringing innovative disciplines to the fore. Aimed to make learning experience intimate and unique the progamme will deploy refreshed pedagogy for the online courses enabling curious minds to critically engage with the complexities of today.

Some key features of the Ashoka Online Curriculum:

❏ An intimate, live online learning experience for 3 to 5 weeks

❏ 20 hours of engagement with the sharpest minds of our time

❏ Flexible evaluation process and certification from AshokaX

❏ A chosen cohort of curious peers and access to an alumni network

The Academy is designed for everyone who is curious to learn from any age group. Applicants will have to use the online application portal and be willing to commit 35 hours of time over a few weeks. Each course will be priced at Rs. 20,000.

Some of the faculty and courses are:

MAKERS OF MODERN INDIA- Rudranshu Mukherjee

Rudrangshu Mukherjee is an internationally acclaimed historian and the Founding Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University. He completed his education at Presidency College, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Oxford University. He currently serves as the Chancellor at Ashoka and yet continues to teach full time and enthral students with little-known stories. In his course, you will get a glimpse of his unique teaching style which focuses on understanding and humanizing historical personalities.

Rudrangshu is regarded as a global expert on the revolt of 1857 in India and his first book, Awadh in Revolt, 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance (1984) has become a standard reference on the subject. He has authored and edited 20 books on other themes including the Penguin Gandhi Reader. His most recent books are Twilight Falls on Liberalism (2018) and Oxford India Short Introduction: Jawaharlal Nehru (2018).

FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION- Nicholas Dirks

An internationally renowned historian and anthropologist, and an important leader in higher education, Nicholas B. Dirks served as the 10th Chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to Berkeley, he was the executive vice president for the arts and sciences and dean of the faculty at Columbia University, and The Franz Boas Professor of Anthropology and History. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University, and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served on numerous national and international bodies while receiving honorary degrees in Beijing, China, and Madras, India. Also, he is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Presently, Dirks has assumed the leadership of the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS) as President and Chief Executive Officer.

ABSTRACTION PRINCIPLE IN MATHEMATICS- Manindra Agarwal

Manindra Agarwal is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT, Kanpur. He is also an Adjunct Professor at CMI and a Senior Faculty Associate at ICTS, Bengaluru. He has also been serving as the Vice-President of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru. His pursuit of clarity and simplicity in exposition come through in his teaching style. His main areas of work are Complexity Theory, Computational Number Theory, and Cryptography. He won the 2006 Fulkerson Prize and the 2006 Gödel Prize, with his co-authors Neeraj Kayal and Nitin Saxena, for their creation of the AKS Primality Test. He was also awarded the Padma Shri in 2013.

JUSTICE: SELECTED TOPICS AND CONTROVERSIES- Pratap Bhanu Mehta

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is a Professor of Political Science and the Former Vice-Chancellor, Ashoka University. He was previously the President of the Center for Policy Research. He has also taught at Harvard, JNU, and the Global Faculty Program at NYU Law School. An eminent public intellectual, he has published widely on political theory and international affairs. His most recent publications include ‘The Oxford Handbook’ to the Indian Constitution (co-edited with Madhav Khosla and Sujit Choudhary); and Non-Alignment 2.0 (with Srinath Raghavan, Sunil Khilnani, et al). He received the 2010 Malcom S. Adishehshiah Award and the 2011 Infosys Prize for Social Sciences – Political Science.

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRISES IN INDIA; FOOD, FUEL, FOREX AND FLU- Arvind Subramanian

Arvind Subramanian is the former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India. Currently, he is a visiting lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a non-resident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). This summer he is going to begin teaching as Professor of Economics at Ashoka University. Previously, he was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the PIIE, Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development and Senior Research Professor at Johns Hopkins University. He had served at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since 1992, most recently as Assistant Director in the research department (2004–07). He worked at the GATT (1988–92) during the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. During his career at the Fund, he worked on trade, development, Africa, India, and the Middle East.

Subramanian has written on growth, trade, development, institutions, aid, oil, India, Africa, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and intellectual property. He has published widely in academic and other journals. He is the author of Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance and other books on climate change, India, and trade. He obtained his undergraduate degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi; M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India; and M.Phil. and D.Phil. from the University of Oxford. He is the author of Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance.

COVERING THE WORLD-Carol Giacomo

Carol Giacomo, a former diplomatic correspondent for Reuters in Washington, covered foreign policy for the international wire service for more than two decades before joining The New York Times editorial board in 2007. She is the Recipient of the 2018 Arthur Ross Media Award in the Commentator category. In her previous position, she travelled over 1 million miles to more than 100 countries with eight secretaries of state and various other senior U.S. officials. Her reporting for the editorial board involves regular independent overseas travel, including recent trips to North Korea, Iran and Myanmar. In 2009, she won the Georgetown University Weintal Prize for diplomatic reporting. In 2017, she won a New York Times publisher’s award for her work and was cited for “providing intelligent, timely commentary and deep knowledge of the issues, making them indispensable in steering the page and its readers through these troubled waters.”

Ms. Giacomo is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She was a Ferris professor of journalism at Princeton University in 2013. In 1999-2000, she was a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, researching U.S. economic and foreign policy decision-making during the Asian financial crisis.

THE SECOND WORLD AND MODERN SOUTH ASIA-Srinath Raghavan

Srinath Raghavan is a Professor of History and International Relations, Ashoka University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the India Institute at King’s College London. His detailed answers to student questions have the potential to become lectures in themselves, and perhaps what makes him one of the most loved professors at Ashoka. His most recent books include ‘The Oxford Handbook of Indian Foreign Policy’ (2015) and ‘India’s War: The Making of Modern South Asia, 1939-1945’ (2016). An expert on war history, and international and strategic affairs, he has served as a member of the National Security Advisory Board. He was the Chief Editor of the Kargil War History for the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. Prior to entering academia, he spent six years as an infantry officer in the Indian Army.

For more information: https://x.ashoka.edu.in/