Department of History

An independent Department of History was started in the academic year 2001-2002. Prior to that, History course was offered as a subsidiary paper for B.A. Economics programme. In 2001-2002, Post Graduate course was offered in West Asian Studies. The programme of West Asian Studies was converted to M.A. History in 2004.The department was elevated to the status of Research centre in History under the University of Calicut in October 2011. Prof. Jimmy A. Chirayath was the first head of the department and he was succeeded by Prof. Thattil Joseph Raphael in 1992, Dr. K.T. Thomas in 1999, and Dr. K. Chandran in 2012, Ms. Lisha K. K in 2015. From 2023 July onwards rotation form to choose the Head of the Department was started. Since 2023 July, Dr. Sreevidhya V., is the head of the department. The faculty members include Dr.Binu M. John, Ms. Lisha K.K, Dr. Sreevidhya V., Ms. Jincy S.R. and Mr. Deepak J. The approved guides of the department are Dr. K. T. Thomas (Retired faculty), Dr. Sreevidhya V., Dr. Praveen O.K. (Assistant professor from the Department of History, Kerala Varma College, Thrissur). Six full-time and five part-time research scholars are now active in the department. PhD was awarded to two of our scholars, Dr. Remani K.K. and Dr. Sobiya Raphael. The department is encouraging research in the emerging areas such as Subaltern Studies, Women Studies, Gender Studies, Environment Studies and so on. We are also focusing on interdisciplinary research in collaboration with departments of Environmental Science, Geology, Economics, Political Science and English. Our research scholars and graduate students have presented papers both in international and national seminars and conferences. They have also published research articles in international and national journals. Maya. K.S. our research scholar is the recipient of Bluestone Rising scholar Award. 

The Faculties of the department are Life members and members of professional History organisations like Indian History Congress, South Indian History Congress, World History Congress, Kerala History Congress and they organize and participate in a wide range of conferences, seminars, and workshops in order to acquaint themselves and students with the new approaches and themes in history and allied subjects such as archaeology, epigraphy and so on. They have been resource persons in Maritime trade, Subaltern Studies, Research Methodology, Oral history, Gender studies, West Asian Studies, Film history. They serve also as resource persons in various universities and colleges in Kerala and other states.

Every year the Department has been organizing various programmes. It includes Talk Series, erudite lectures, coaching class for NET examination, dissertation presentation competition, essay writing competition and quiz programmes, speech competition on special days and collage competitions. The department also conducts Heritage walk to familiarize the historically and culturally important places. We are also preparing students for their higher studies especially for research activities. In association with the IQAC of the college, the department has prepared an oral history archive which includes the memories of Kerala Flood 2018, Covid19 Pandemic, interviews with prominent historians and other eminent persons, indigenous knowledge system of Kerala like Carpentry, craftsmanship, digging well, agriculture, indigenous medicines among others. It also includes a separate section to denote the experiences of different categories of women. We have also collected ritual songs related to different castes of Kerala. A separate section on the memories of Christ College is also preserved in these archives. As part of the Participatory Learning Activity, the department is creating a documentary.