Started as a part of the Centre of Postgraduate Instruction and Research (CPIR) of Mumbai University, in 1974, the Department was established as a full-fledged department of the Goa University in 1985.

The teaching programme in the Department blends classical foundations with contemporary developments and debates. Substantively, moving beyond its disciplinary confines, the Department seeks to promote teaching and research on contemporary Goa thorough trans-disciplinary perspectives. At the master’s level, the Department promotes fieldwork based assignments and dissertations. Towards this end, every year it holds a Research Methodology Training Camp. Students are encouraged to participate and present papers in regional and national level conferences and seminars. An exclusive room, equipped with reference books and an Over Head Projector is available to the students for interactions. There is a computer room with Internet facility for the students and faculty

1. Dr. Ganesha Somayaji, Professor and Head
2. Shri Alito Siqueira, Associate Professor
3. Dr. Joanna P. Coelho, Assistant Professor

The Department offers MA and Ph. D. courses. MA programme is divided into four semesters. As part of MA, the students study courses equivalent to 80 credits and during the third and the fourth semesters the students are encouraged to write a dissertation equivalent to twelve credits along with other courses.

As far as the research degree is concerned till date 18 candidates have been awarded the Ph. D. degree. They worked on such diverse themes as ethno-medicine, rural development institutions, religion, language issues, and social mobility. Majority of the theses had Goa as research setting. The formal research activity is not confined to Ph. D. programme alone. At times research students from abroad had sought affiliation to the Department having some of our faculty members as local supervisors. The faculty members also offered consultancy services and completed research projects sponsored by such funding agencies as Equations (Bangalore), Heidelberg University (Germany), UGC (New Delhi) and Indian Institute of Advanced Study (Shimla). Informally, the faculty members have been pursuing their personal research on such diverse themes as tourism, post-coloniality, development, tribal situation, language dynamics, and gastronomic transitions.

Courses Offered

M.A. in Sociology(Syllabus), Ph.D. in Sociology

Faculties and Specialisation

Other Information

Goa is the thrust area for the research activities of the Department.The various areas of interest for the faculty are: Migration and Diaspora, development studies, Sociology of food, colonial and post-colonial constructions of village, comparative post-coloniality and tourism. Field based studies on Goa are encouraged for MA dissertations. The organization of an annual Research Methodology Training Camp is aimed at equipping the students with research methods prior to their dissertation work. In addition, the Department encourages researchers from other institutions to use the Department in mutually enriching exchanges.