The Department of History has some of the most distinguished faculty among the History teachers of the University of Delhi. Classroom interactions are an occasion to cultivate a range of related skills like those of writing, critical thinking as well as the ability to discerningly wade through innumerable details and complex arguments. An attempt is made to engage students with multiple perspectives on various historical themes and enable them to analyse those perspectives critically. The exploration of past issues and of historical processes helps students acquire the necessary tools to tease out the underlying social-political significance of the present and the past, of the mundane as well as the extraordinary.
Throughout the academic session experts from the field of History and related disciplines are invited to make presentations and interact with the faculty and students. The Department also screens documentaries and feature films of historical and contemporary significance usually followed by a discussion with the filmmaker or other experts. Guided tours to places of historical importance in Delhi are part of the Department’s annual calendar.
Graduates from the Department have made a mark in almost every possible field. A number of our students are well-known academics who teach in top universities in India and abroad. They have also excelled in areas as diverse as bureaucracy, management, theater, painting, dance and mass communication.
Lectures and Talks
The academic year 2025-26 began with the Departmental Orientation on 2 August 2025, which introduced the incoming cohort to the department’s academic ethos. This was followed by the CV Building session on 23 August 2025, conducted by Ms. Vidhi Singh, alumna of the department. The month concluded with The LSR Heritage Walk on 29 August 2025, offering freshers an immersive introduction to Delhi’s cultural landscape.
September saw a surge of academic engagement. On 19 September 2025, Dr. Pankaj Jha, Associate Professor, Department of History, LSR, delivered ‘The Historian’s Craft’, a workshop that familiarised students with methods of historical inquiry. The month also featured Career Crossroads: Cracking CUET PG in History on 21 September 2025 by alumna Shivani Jamloki. A Reading Circle on 24 September 2025 focused on Habermas’s Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and encouraged deeper theoretical discussions.
The Editorial Board of Ijtihad organised an academically rich workshop, ‘Is Kinship a Male Institution?’, on 30 October 2025. It featured Prof. Smita Sehgal, Professor of History, LSR and Dr. Shatrupa Bhattacharyya, Assistant Professor, Department of History, LSR.
February began with ‘Reading Primary Sources from Medieval India’ on 5 February,2025, delivered by Prof. Amita Paliwal, Professor, Department of History, University of Delhi, under the Editorial Board of Ijtihad. The department launched its podcast series on 11 February,2025 with ‘Unpacking Careers in Teaching and Academia’, featuring Prof. Asmita Jataria, Professor, Department of History, LSR. This was followed by ‘Career Crossroads’ on 22 February, led by department alumna Ms. Yogita Jagetia.
February concluded with a lecture on ‘Performative Masculinities in Regional Courts of North India between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Centuries’ on 25 February, 2025 delivered by Dr. Vijayant Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor of History, Dyal Singh College (Evening), University of Delhi.
A collaborative session with the Department of Sociology hosted Dr. Twinkle Siwach, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, LSR, who delivered a talk titled ‘Sati and the Debate over Tradition’ on 25 March 2026. The month concluded with a lecture by Prof. Upinder Singh, Professor of History, Ashoka University and former Head of the Department of History, University of Delhi, titled ‘Asian Encounters: Exploring Connected Histories’ on 27 March 2026.
April included a guest lecture by Dr. Tarana Hussain Khan on culinary traditions, organised by the editorial board of Ijtihad on 6 April 2026. The month also featured the National Seminar on ‘Trends in Social Sciences Research’ (9 April 2026), where Dr. Kajari Kamal, Dr. Sanjukta Datta and Dr. Radhika Chadha offered insights into emerging methodological and thematic directions within contemporary social science research, with a total of 57 individual registrations.
Academic Conference
The department’s annual academic conference, Maazio-Mustaqbil, held in November, remained the highlight of the year. Pre-fest events explored themes such as decolonisation, memory, ecology and textual interpretation. The series included a lecture on Jinnealogy on 1 November 2025 by Dr. Anand Vivek Taneja, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University. This was followed by a Reading Circle on Fanon on 4 November 2025, heritage walks including the Photowalk to Tughlaqabad Fort on 2 November 2025 and the Red Fort Walk on 7 November 2025 led by historian Dr. Amar Farooqui, Professor of History, University of Delhi and heritage expert Mr. Sohail Hashmi, along with creative activities such as origamimaking, games and a musical collaboration with Dhwani.
The fest itself brought an impressive line-up of talks on the Israel-Palestine conflict, reinterpretations of the 1857 Revolt, Mughal environmental history and colonial knowledge systems. The fest also featured the Maazi Paper Presentation Competition (PPC), which received 10 registrations. A dynamic closing ceremony featured performances, quizzes, interdisciplinary collaborations and student exhibitions.
Other Association Highlights
Throughout the year, the department organised a range of community-building activities that enriched academic engagement. The Editorial Board screened ‘All That Breathes’, a film directed by Shaunak Sen. These initiatives were complemented by heritage walks, including the Hauz Khas Heritage Walk with Elocution on 18 January 2026, the Kamla Nehru Ridge Heritage Walk led by Dr. Justin Mathew and Dr. Shashi Bhushan Gupta on 15 February 2026 and the Mehrauli Archaeological Park Walk led by Ms. Samyukta Ninan on 15 March 2026 all of which strengthened experiential learning.
| Name | Areas of interest |
| Professor Smita Sahgal Professor smitasahgal16@yahoo.com | Ancient Indian Religion, Gender studies (especially Masculinity Studies), Ancient Societies and Early Modern Europe Publications and other works click here |
| Dr. Ujjayini Ray Associate Professor ujjayiniray@hotmail.com | Ancient Indian History, Social Formations, Gender and Religious Studies & Early Medieval India. Publications and other works click here |
| Professor Shwetanshu Bhushan Professor shwetansh@yahoo.com | Early Indian History, Society, Gender, Rituals, Traditions, Heritage, Culture and Diaspora Studies Publications and other works click here |
| Dr. Nayana Das Gupta Assistant Professor dgnayana@yahoo.com | Medieval Indian History, Cultural History of Medieval Bengal, Environmental History, European History, Gender History Publications and other works click here |
| Professor Pankaj Jha Professor (Teacher-in-charge) jha.abc@gmail.com | Medieval Indian History, History of languages and literatures, History of Time, Servants and Forms of Servitude, History of Cinema, Translation Studies, Philosophy and Methods of History Publications and other works click here |
| Dr. V. Ismail Associate Professor drismail922@gmail.com | Modern Indian History; History of East Asia (China , Japan & Korea); Economic history (Colonial revenue policy & peasants revolts in Malabar & Sino-Indian Border studies. Publications and other works click here |
| Dr. Kanika Kishore Saxena Assistant Professor kanika_kishore@lsr.du.ac.in | Ancient and Early Medieval Indian History with a focus on religion, Art and inscriptions Publications and other works click here |
| Dr. Sushil Kumar Singh Assistant Professor Sushilbhuphd@gmail.com | Medieval Indian History Philosophy of Bhakti and Sufism Publications and other works click here |
| Dr. Rahul Maurya Assistant Professor rahul.maurya@lsr.du.ac.in | Ancient Indian History, History of Indian National Movements, Medieval Indian History, Indo-Islamic Architecture Publications and other works click here |
| Ms. Priyanka Sharma Assistant Professor priyanka.sharma@lsr.du.ac.in | Modern Indian History, Modern European History, Colonial and post-colonial Delhi, Urban history, Disability studies Publications and other works click here |
| Dr. Sonali Mishra Assistant Professor sonalimishra@lsr.edu.in sonalimishra@lsr.du.ac.in | Medieval Indian History, Maritime History of the Indian Ocean Trading Region (17 th Century), European expansion in the Indian Ocean Publications and other works click here |
| Ms. Asmita Jataria Assistant Professor asmitajataria@lsr.du.ac.in | Modern Indian History, Indian Legal and Constitutional History, Colonialist and Imperialist studies, Gender and Sexuality studies, Subaltern studies, Modern European History Publications and other works click here |
| Dr. Shatarupa Bhattacharya Assistant Professor shatarupabhattacharya@lsr.edu.in shatarupa.b@gmail.com shatarupabhattacharya@lsr.du.ac.in | Ancient Indian History, Social History, History of Regions, Gender Studies, Disability Studies Publications and other works click here |
President – Saumya Yadav
General Secretary – Twisha Prasad
Treasurer – Anugraha Manoj
Email: lsr.historyunion@gmail.com