Department of International Relations - Ashoka University

Department of International Relations

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Department of International Relations

The department’s teaching programme provides a strong foundation for students seeking postgraduate opportunities at top institutions worldwide, but also prepares them for diverse tracks including in policy think tanks, international business, government, NGOs, and journalism.

The department’s pedagogical approach reflects its faculty’s areas of expertise, encouraging interdisciplinary inquiry and innovative research methodologies. It offers a wide range of courses, from core modules in IR Theory, International History, War and Strategy, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Research Methods to electives on topics such as international conflict analysis, cyber security, populism, and various area studies modules. These courses integrate classical IR lenses with emerging perspectives, providing students with critical vantage points from which to examine canonical IR concepts and opportunities to bridge theory with real-world issues.

As one of the leading locations for the study of International Relations in India that seeks to train the next generation of IR scholars and researchers at the helm of international affairs, the department embraces theoretical and methodological diversity with a view to enhance the understanding of contemporary global politics.

Its diverse faculty combine Global South perspectives and area studies knowledge with traditional Western approaches to international relations. With regional expertise on South and Southeast Asia, China, the Asia-Pacific, and Latin America and thematic expertise on tangible issues including energy, non-traditional and cyber security, and technology, they bridge scholarly expertise with policy engagement, and conduct research in areas such as IR theory, international history, foreign policy, diplomacy, security, globalization, gender, and identity.

Programmes

Undergraduate Programme in International Relations

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Faculty at International Relations

Faculty at the IR Department are at the cutting edge of various aspects of the discipline: India's diplomatic history; evolution of strategic thought in post colonial India; analysis of patterns of internationalist thought and behaviour in China, SouthEast Asia and Latin America; challenging Eurocentric frames of reference for understanding IR; and the influence of geopolitics on the making of foreign policy. Collectively, their research shapes the broader discussion and analysis of South Asia’s internationalist dilemmas, both within India and outside.

Nayan Chanda

Associate Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University.

M.A History, Jadavpur University

Amit Julka

Assistant Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. National University of Singapore

Quintijn Kat

Head of the Department, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. University College London

Dipin Kaur
Dipin Kaur

Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. Yale University

Pallavi Raghavan

Assistant Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. University of Cambridge

Srinath Raghavan

Professor of International Relations and History, Ashoka University

Ph.D. King's College, London

Varun Sahni

Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University

D.Phil. University of Oxford

Smiling woman with short black hair, wearing a green saree, pearl necklace, and small earrings.
Ananya Sharma

Assistant Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. Jawaharlal Nehru University

Arun Sukumar

Assistant Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. Tufts University

Bann Seng Tan

Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. City University New York (CUNY), Graduate Center

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Kanti Bajpai

Visiting Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Smiling woman with long dark hair, blue highlights, nose ring, orange headband, and black blazer.
Natallia Khaniejo

Visiting Faculty of International Relation, Ashoka University

Ph.D. Nanyang Technological University

Bald man wearing glasses and a white shirt, standing in front of a bookshelf.
Shivshankar Menon

Visiting Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University Chair, Ashoka Centre for China Studies

Smiling man in a navy suit and tie standing in front of a wooden wall with green plants nearby.
Constantino Xavier

Visiting Faculty of International Relations, Ashoka University

Ph.D. John Hopkins University

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                    [post_content] => 9 April: Distinguished Speaker Series talk: 'Identities in Motion: Practices, Enactment, Narration', 6:30 pm. 

The talk will be followed by the buffet for all attendees. Please make sure to register by clicking the 'Register' button.



Abstract:

If identity – as theoretical construct or lived reality – was ever some stable and apolitical entity, those days are rapidly disappearing, if not gone for good. Identity has been weaponised, with people experiencing it less as an act of deliberation or calculation, and more as a process of rupture to the routines and practices that shape ‘who they are.’ Given these developments, I argue that scholarship on identity needs a meta-theoretical, theoretical and methodological rethink and expansion. The argument is developed in three parts. First, I introduce relationalism as ontology and its implications for how we think about theory. Second, the bulk of the talk then draws upon relational identity scholarship in sociology, feminist theory, everyday nationalism, critical border studies and visual ethnography. This allows me to develop a rich and diverse roster of social practices, enactments and narrations - accessed through immersive field methods - that capture the dynamics of identity formation in a world of flux and rupture. Third, I argue that the pluralism behind this roster - far from a weakness - is precisely the point. If political science takes its foot off the neo-positivist meta-theoretical and method/design accelerator, the result will be a broader and deeper conceptual space for creating new theory and data on identity formation. The discipline needs multiple gold standards for advancing the knowledge frontier.

Bio:

Jeffrey T. Checkel holds the Chair in International Politics in the Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute (EUI). Earlier, he held the Simons Chair in International Law and Human Security at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Priorly, he taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Oslo.

After a first degree from Cornell University in applied physics, Checkel received a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A consistent theme in his scholarship has been to bridge divides of meta-theory, discipline, and subfield. After a start in Sovietology and arms control, Checkel turned to the study of institutions and norms; to European politics and identity; to transnationalism, civil wars and political violence; and - most recently - to the politics of identity formation and processual methods in the social sciences.

Checkel's research interests include international relations theory (identity formation, constructivism, international institutions, civil war, domestic-international linkages) and qualitative methods (meta-theoretical foundations, process tracing, practice analytics, bridging positivist-interpretive techniques). He has published broadly on these topics, including four books from Cambridge University Press and one volume from Yale University Press. At EUI, he offers seminars on international relations theory, international institutions, philosophies of the social sciences, and qualitative methods (introductory and advanced seminars; workshops).




10 April: Methods Workshop, 'Putting Social Science in Motion: Process Tracing and Beyond', 11:30 am - 3:30 pm.

Aimed at early-career researchers, postdocs, and current PhD Students.



 

Please register using the 'Register' button above.

 
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            [post_content] => 9 April: Distinguished Speaker Series talk: 'Identities in Motion: Practices, Enactment, Narration', 6:30 pm. 

The talk will be followed by the buffet for all attendees. Please make sure to register by clicking the 'Register' button.



Abstract:

If identity – as theoretical construct or lived reality – was ever some stable and apolitical entity, those days are rapidly disappearing, if not gone for good. Identity has been weaponised, with people experiencing it less as an act of deliberation or calculation, and more as a process of rupture to the routines and practices that shape ‘who they are.’ Given these developments, I argue that scholarship on identity needs a meta-theoretical, theoretical and methodological rethink and expansion. The argument is developed in three parts. First, I introduce relationalism as ontology and its implications for how we think about theory. Second, the bulk of the talk then draws upon relational identity scholarship in sociology, feminist theory, everyday nationalism, critical border studies and visual ethnography. This allows me to develop a rich and diverse roster of social practices, enactments and narrations - accessed through immersive field methods - that capture the dynamics of identity formation in a world of flux and rupture. Third, I argue that the pluralism behind this roster - far from a weakness - is precisely the point. If political science takes its foot off the neo-positivist meta-theoretical and method/design accelerator, the result will be a broader and deeper conceptual space for creating new theory and data on identity formation. The discipline needs multiple gold standards for advancing the knowledge frontier.

Bio:

Jeffrey T. Checkel holds the Chair in International Politics in the Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute (EUI). Earlier, he held the Simons Chair in International Law and Human Security at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. Priorly, he taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Oslo.

After a first degree from Cornell University in applied physics, Checkel received a PhD in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A consistent theme in his scholarship has been to bridge divides of meta-theory, discipline, and subfield. After a start in Sovietology and arms control, Checkel turned to the study of institutions and norms; to European politics and identity; to transnationalism, civil wars and political violence; and - most recently - to the politics of identity formation and processual methods in the social sciences.

Checkel's research interests include international relations theory (identity formation, constructivism, international institutions, civil war, domestic-international linkages) and qualitative methods (meta-theoretical foundations, process tracing, practice analytics, bridging positivist-interpretive techniques). He has published broadly on these topics, including four books from Cambridge University Press and one volume from Yale University Press. At EUI, he offers seminars on international relations theory, international institutions, philosophies of the social sciences, and qualitative methods (introductory and advanced seminars; workshops).




10 April: Methods Workshop, 'Putting Social Science in Motion: Process Tracing and Beyond', 11:30 am - 3:30 pm.

Aimed at early-career researchers, postdocs, and current PhD Students.



 

Please register using the 'Register' button above.

 
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News

Events

News

Professor Nayan Chanda reviews newest book by Professor Srinath Raghavan on Indira…

Mar 31 , 2026 04:03

The book is an example of how a deeply researched work, replete with detail, can still be an engaging page-turner,…

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Ashoka News

Bann Seng Tan is appointed as Associate Editor for the Asia Europe…

Mar 10 , 2026 01:03

Bann Seng Tan continues as Associate Editor of the Asia Europe Journal

Read
Ashoka News

Launch of the Making Identity Count Project

Mar 10 , 2026 01:03

Read
Ashoka News

Bann Seng Tan speaks on hedging at a high-level roundtable on ASEAN–EU…

Jan 20 , 2026 04:01

Bann Seng Tan on Hedging at ASEAN–EU Policy Roundtable

Read
Ashoka News

Lecture by Ambassador Shyam Saran at Ashoka University

Oct 31 , 2025 02:10

In a talk delivered at Ashoka University, Sonipat, former Foreign Secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran said that global politics is now…

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Ashoka News

Call for Papers – Workshop on Non-National Identities and IR

Aug 25 , 2025 11:08

Extended Submission Deadline: 11 October, 2025

Read
Ashoka News

Varun Sahni joins the Department of International Relations

Aug 22 , 2025 11:08

The department is delighted to welcome Professor Varun Sahni as Professor of International Relations.

Read
Ashoka News

Bann Seng Tan gave a book talk at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South…

Jul 29 , 2025 05:07

The Graduate School of Governance at Sungkyunkwan University (성균관대학교 국정전문대학원) hosted the 24th Global Platform Governance Forum on July 11,…

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Ashoka News

Natallia Khaniejo joins the Department of International Relations

Jul 28 , 2025 05:07

The department is delighted to welcome Dr. Natallia Khaniejo as a Visiting Faculty of International Relations.

Read
Ashoka News

Kanti Bajpai joins the Department of International Relations

Jul 28 , 2025 05:07

The department is delighted to welcome Prof. Kanti Bajpai as a Visiting Professor of International Relations.

Read
Ashoka News

In the Media

The IR Department at Ashoka University invites you for two events, featuring Prof. Jeffrey T. Checkel, European University Institute

April 9
View All Events

Contact Us

For any queries regarding International Relations programmes, please contact: -

Quintijn Kat

Head of Department

quintijn.kat@ashoka.edu.in

Pratima Kadian

Department Manager

pratima.kadian@ashoka.edu.in

Nandini Agrawal

Student Representative

ir.rep@ashoka.edu.in

-

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