About Us

The Research Unit is essentially a multi-disciplinary collaboration. Its primary focus is on encouraging an analytical mindset among students that results in quality research by providing them appropriate training and tools. The Unit takes care of a significant lacuna in providing quality training to students at the undergraduate level by organising workshops, sessions and paper writing competitions to enable them to learn the basics of research and experiment with their interests.

Mission of the Unit

The Mission of Khoj is to make students learn the process of writing by conducting active Research. This is to enhance a student’s academic profile by providing a good exposure to the field of research, and reinforcing the values of academic integrity, rigour and excellence. The journey of Khoj collectively engages students in writing and public presentation of research papers and trains them to be worthy researchers.

Need of a Student Research Body

• Multiple competitions, workshops and events based on research take place throughout Delhi University in an academic year. These opportunities, however, remain untapped by the students. The Unit is well informed about the competitions and encourage its members to participate.
• Even if students learn about these opportunities, very often students do not know how to proceed further. The Unit provides direction and opportunities to students on how to learn the basics of research, so that they feel confident about participating in such competitions.
• The Unit is a place where students can experiment with the type of papers they want to write, their writing and presentation styles and so on. One might not get a chance to try out different techniques and methods while working on major projects under the guidance of Professors.
• The Unit represents a body of students interested in the field of research. Their achievements will become a driving force for more students to join this Unit and learn academic skills.
• The Unit caters to all students coming from diverse departments, and provides them with this platform to learn the process of research and writing and target publishing.

Structure

The Unit is founded by Ritigya Malik and Radhika Kukreja from B.A. (H) English batch 2021 in the year 2020. The Unit is managed and run by students, and is therefore a student functioning body which works under the umbrella of the Research Centre.

The Core Team of the Unit consists of:

• The Office bearers (President, Vice President and Treasurer)
• The Executive Board (various Team Heads)
• The Department Representatives (one from each college department)

Founding Batch of 2020:

Co-Presidents

Ritigya Malik, B.A. English (Hons.) IIIrd Year

Radhika Kukreja, B.A. English (Hons.) IIIrd Year

Executive Board

Organization Head- Sneha, B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics, IInd year

Media & Graphics Head- Ananya Tyagi, B.A. English (Hons.) IInd Year

Content Head- Roshni Uppal, B.A. English (Hons.) IInd Year

Sponsorship Head- Nitika Sharma, B.Com. (Hons.) IInd Year

Information Head- Yashve Singhal, B.A. English (Hons.) IInd Year

Department Representatives

English Department Representative- Kangana Aggarwal, B.A. English (Hons.) IInd Year

Commerce Department Representative- Shruti Chawla, B.Com. (Hons.) IIIrd Year

Economics Department Representative- Divya Bhalla, B.A. Economics (Hons.) IInd Year

B.A. Program Department Representative- Sadia Siddiqui, B.A. Program IInd Year

Mathematics Department Representative- Priyanka, B.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics, IIIrd year

Sociology Department Representative- Soumya Kaushik, B.A. Sociology (Hons.) IIIrd Year

Hindi Department Representative- Ankita, B.A. Hindi (Hons.) IIIrd Year

History Department Representative- Muskan, B.A. History (Hons.) IInd Year

Philosophy Department Representative- Swasthika, B.A. Philosophy (Hons.) IIIrd Year

HDFE Department Representative- Vidhi Jain, B.A. Program IInd Year

Political Science Department Representative- Samriddhi Hooda, B.A. Political Science (Hons.) IIIrd Year

Types of Research Projects and Funding

All student research projects will be categorised under the following three categories:

Category 1:

Students working under faculty

These projects come directly under the aegis of the Research Centre, and the students coordinate the projects with the respective faculty member and the Department Representative.

Category 2:

Students’ Solo projects, once approved by the Centre

Students interested in conducting active and independent Research. Once their proposal is approved, they may seek guidance from the Faculty, the Department Representative and/or the Office Bearers to carry out the research. Students may send their research proposals to researchunit@jdm.du.ac.in in the odd semester for consideration using the format available on the Research Centre tab.

Category 3:

Research conducted for prompt driven projects

All prompt-based projects, undertaken for competitions, invited events, group activities, magazine writing, independent blog publishing, etc. will be carried out under the aegis of the Unit itself. The participants may contact other Unit members, the Office Bearers, the Faculty and/or the Department Representatives for guidance.

Projects carried out under the categories of 1 and 2 are eligible for funding from the Research Centre, under the same terms and conditions. While projects undertaken under category 3 will not be funded. If the expense is collectively made by the Unit itself for a competition or an event, then the Unit’s fund will be used to reimburse the students.

Focus on Inclusivity and Diversity

The Unit takes special care to ensure that students of all disciplines feel involved, and know that their requirements are heard and catered to. Steps are taken to ensure that the Unit is a safe space for people to have dissenting and diverse opinions.

To ensure that people from all disciplines feel equally represented, the Department Representatives are elected from each department. Further, the monthly sessions organised to invite Professors to give insight into Research are alternated amongst all disciplines.

Not only disciplines, but the Unit consciously focuses on giving representations to all groups by providing them a space to participate and conduct Research in diverse fields. Special sessions for PwD, involving the Equal Opportunity Cell, inviting religious minorities to conduct research and discover and discuss more diverse and tabooed topics. Such inclusive practices are promoted and are the norm of the Unit.

List of Office bearers for 2023 - 24

President- Advika Subodh ( advika.21philo315@jdm.du.ac.in )

Vice President- Tanisha ( tanisha.21math1398@jdm.du.ac.in )

General Secretary- Jiya Kumar ( jiya.21bcomp1350@jdm.du.ac.in )

Treasurer- Himanshi Garg ( himanshi.21bcomp1371@jdm.du.ac.in )

Liaison Officer- Arushi Chauhan ( arushi.21philo23@jdm.du.ac.in )

Media team head- Muskan ( muskan.21bcomh377@jdm.du.ac.in )

Media team coordinator- SANSKRITI ( sanskriti.22math1317@jdm.du.ac.in )

Content team head- Shubhangi Krishna ( shubhangi.21hst1355@jdm.du.ac.in )

Content team coordinator- Manifa Haroon ( manifa.21philo564@jdm.du.ac.in )

Organization team head- RACHITA BURMAN ( rachita.21bap449@jdm.du.ac.in )

Sponsorship team head- Kritika Gupta ( kritika.22ba293@jdm.du.ac.in )

Information head:

English department representative- Ayisha Hima P. ( ayisha.21eng99@jdm.du.ac.in )

HDFE department representative- Shivani ( shivani.21bap892@jdm.du.ac.in )

Economics department representative- Madhavi Sharma ( madhavi.22eco295@jdm.du.ac.in )

B.A. programme department representative- Zannat Parween ( zannatparween11@gmail.com )