Abstract
The rise of liberal arts institutions in India has been a recent development that has taken shape over the past two decades. In this senior thesis, I discuss the ways in which the liberal arts model implemented at FLAME University, India, resonates with and diverges from the prototypical liberal arts model in the United States. I also elicit the determinants that influence the institutional structure and practices of FLAME and study these institutional manifestations in relation to larger social phenomenon. I prepare the groundwork for my project by first reviewing the values and organizational structures of the liberal arts model in the U.S., and conceptualizing the forces that may lead to its transformation in the Indian higher education context. My case study of FLAME is based on interviews and participant observation on campus, along with analysis of collected documents such as program brochures and handbooks. My findings show that FLAME exhibits a hybrid model: it mirrors the American liberal arts education in aspects such as pedagogical methods, classroom environment, and social class positioning of the student body, yet differs in aspects such as program duration, courses offered, and approaches to gender and ethnic diversity. I reflect on the cultural, political and bureaucratic forces that shape this hybrid model and suggest additional lines of study in the field of organizational sociology and education
Advisor
McConnell, David
Department
Sociology and Anthropology
Recommended Citation
Tummalapalli, Nikhil, "The Reinterpretation and Transformation of the American Liberal Arts Model in the Indian Context" (2018). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 8070.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/8070
Disciplines
Higher Education | Sociology
Publication Date
2018
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2018 Nikhil Tummalapalli