The Department of History was the first honours course that was introduced in the college. In that sense, it holds the pride of the college in its long tradition. It was also one of the first to start MA in the college.
The Department has been holding an Annual lecture for the last nine years where distinguished historians have come and delivered the major research findings to teachers and students of the academic community. The speakers include: Professors R.S.Sharma, Irfan Habib, Bipan Chandra, Uma Chakravarty, Vijaya Ramaswamy, Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, B.D.Chattopadhyaya, Chetan Singh and K.N.Panikkar.
The Department has organised many two day and three day seminars/conferences, colloquiums over the years that have been attended by the academic community of Delhi University with great enthusiasm.The academic leadership taken by the department of SVC has resulted in the History community of the University of Delhi expecting academic activities all round the year, year in year out.
The department has set up a Centre for South Indian Studies with ample funding from the ICHR and the UGC under Dr. I Thirumali and held three national level conferences with enthusiastic participation. The proceedings of the first two conferences have already been published. The third volume is under way. The department has a very established History Association that conducts excursions, seminars, film shows and other functions of the Department throughout the year.
The annual festival of the department, Legacy has been in existence for more than two decades and has been getting tremendous response from students all over the campus.
Teachers:
The members of the department have been academically very active both in the publications/books/articles in reputed journals and paper presentations at national and international conferences/seminars.
The Teachers of the department have held prestigious British Academy Fellowship, Ratan Tata Fellowship, Senior Research Fellowships of ICHR, Charles Wallace Fellowship, Fulbright fellowship and Associateships of the IIAS, Shimla.
The members of the department are:
(a) Dr. I Thirumali (Modern India)
(b) Dr. B. Pati (Modern India)
(c) Dr. Nirmal Kumar (Medieval India)
(d) Dr. Jaya Sinha Tyagi (Ancient India)
(e) Mr. M.Jeevan (Modern India)
(f) Dr. Vandana Joshi (Modern Europe)
(g) Mr. Neeraj Sahay (Ancient India)
(h) Ms. Nuti Namita (Modern India)
Students:
Many of our students have topped the Delhi University exams and brought laurels to the college. Our students have gained admission to top institutions in India and abroad like SOAS, the University of Oxford, the London School of Economics and even the IED, a leading Fashion school in Milan, Italy. Among our students are those who have won prestigious international scholarships like the Rhodes and the Commonwealth. Our ex-students are doing very well in life and many, in the visible field of journalism, are in very senior positions.
