The Department focuses on developing students’ interest in historical thinking and research. The best practices of the Department are aimed to enable students to creatively engage in social issues by providing them a historical perspective. The objective of the Department’s best practice is to make the students good professional and committed citizens who play crucial roles in the future of the society in which they are studying. Consequently, the best practices of the Department provide teachers and students opportunities to take part in the effort of making India a knowledge society.

The following best practices of the Department help the student to understand the fundamentals of their subject and the social responsibilities of their institution. These programmes allow them to gain a well-informed direction to plan their future career. Therefore, we focus on continuous improvement of knowledge, skill and spirit of innovations. The best practices of the Department of History cater to the pedagogic requirements, the local context of the learning process, and the social and cultural backgrounds of learners.

Title: Orientation to Freshers

The Department organises orientation sessions for the first year students to familiarize them to the university system, the department, and their senior students. The orientation programme serves as a bridge between the first year undergraduate students and institution and makes students who are coming from varied academic and social backgrounds feel comfortable in the new surroundings of the university and the city. The orientation session also introduces students to the rules and regulations of the college. This is an opportunity for students to learn about the course structure, semester system, the University academic calendar, and other academic as well as co-curricular facilities provided by the institution.

Title: Mentoring of Students by Alumni

The Department invites its alumni who are working as academics, civil servants, media personnel, and others who constructively contributed to the development of their society to interact with students and share their experiences. These sessions provide students confidence, feeling of togetherness, a sense of the Department’s history, and value of generations. The former students provide career guidance to the students to give them a sense of direction to prepare their career. The alumni interactions also provide the former students of the Department an opportunity to visit the department and feel a sense of responsibility toward their educational institution.

Title: Heritage Walks

Heritage walks to the ancient, medieval, and modern monuments of Delhi and its surroundings is the best opportunity for students to develop interest in history. The sites regularly visited include the Red Fort, the North Delhi Ridge, Mehrauli Archaeological Park, Humayun’s Tomb, Taj Mahal, Agra Fort. Opportunities to understand the institutional and social mechanisms of preserving the heritage sites provide them a chance to think about the contemporary societies’ historical consciousness. The faculty members of the Department explain the significance of the monument to develop their interest in history. Heritage walks allow history students to understand the cultural specificities of the urban space where they live and study. The heritage walks are also successful in generating interest among students to preserve our heritage.

Title: The Annual Undergraduate Research and Training:

The History Society of the Department trains students to conduct research conferences and workshops. As part of organising the annual undergraduate conference, the students engage in identifying a research theme, write a concept note, reach out to other colleges and universities, announce the conference, and conduct national conference. The National level research conference provides them an opportunity to interact with students from various universities in India and abroad. The undergraduate research conference promotes creative thinking as well as research skills.

Title: Study visits to Museums and Archives

The Department of History organizes educational trips to the National Museum of India (Delhi) and to the National Archives of India (Delhi). These study trips allow the students to understand the art of collecting objects with historical relevance, and the way museums classify and preserve them. Visits to the National Archives of India help history students to understand the process of acquiring historical documents and an archivist classifies historical documents.

Title: Classes and discussions based on visual sources

The Department promotes the use of visual sources to make studying history a dynamic experience for the students. Therefore, the Department conducts screenings of films and historical documentaries to encourage students to integrate visual culture as an integral part of historical research. The use of visual sources allows students to understand a society’s historical consciousness, especially through movies dealing with historical themes. The visual sources enable students to think creatively about the past. We also integrate software based classroom applications to collectively watch documentaries and webinars.