The Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) hosted the twelfth edition of the Annual PhD Workshop from 12–14 January 2026 at IIHS Sadashivnagar, Bengaluru, with limited options for online participation.

The Workshop was designed to provide a platform for in-depth exploration and for early-, mid-, and late-stage PhD students to fine-tune their work. This iteration of the PhD Workshop was open to doctoral candidates currently enrolled in PhD programmes across a wide range of disciplines, with a shared interest in urban research and practice.

About the PhD Workshop  

IIHS has an established history of engaging with interdisciplinary approaches to enable new knowledge production and impactful on-ground practice that help tackle emerging challenges in a rapidly urbanising world. This work has contributed to the creation of teaching and training programmes across multiple scales for policymakers, practitioners, scholars, and, more recently, graduate students through the IIHS (Institution Deemed to be) University. The Annual PhD Workshop was one such initiative.

The Workshop was a unique educational intervention on interdisciplinary urban research, designed to provide a dedicated space for PhD candidates to expand their work. Participants did so by interacting with eminent urban scholars and practitioners from IIHS and leading universities and research institutions across the world, including Yale, MIT, IIT Madras, and TISS, among others.

Initiated in 2013, the PhD Workshop had engaged over 290 participants from leading global and domestic institutions, including the University of Oxford, MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, NUS, JNU, TISS, and IIT Bombay, across a wide range of disciplines such as Architecture, Planning, Sociology, Urban Health, Economics, Public Policy, Climate Change, Anthropology, Engineering, Governance, and Law. The Workshop provided participants with an opportunity to explore emerging areas of urban research, particularly in India and other parts of the Global South, and enabled them to theorise from both research and practice.

The Workshop aimed to shape the trajectory of doctoral careers and enable participants to engage with the imperatives of changing disciplinary forms while meeting the substantive academic demands of the doctoral process. The foundational ethos of the Workshop was an interdisciplinary approach to the Urban, guided by theories of and from the Global South, with an emphasis on grounded understandings. The Workshop provided scholars with a space to critically examine urban-related issues of interest and their own positionality within them. This self-reflexive criticality allowed participants to approach their fields of inquiry as actors within, rather than as mere observers of, urban phenomena. In addition to guiding students through their research, the Workshop addressed specific processes involved in earning a doctoral degree. Its aim was to create a space of convivial co-learning that opened conversations not only on fields of inquiry but also on the lived experiences of students navigating the doctoral journey.

Structure of the Workshop 

The structure of the Workshop and its modules was designed to be relevant to students from different disciplines and at different stages of their doctoral careers. It also allowed for specific attention to the needs of individual scholars and enabled peer-to-peer learning. The Workshop had three core components: Common Sessions, Student Presentations in specialised tracks, and Individual Mentoring.

The Common Sessions primarily involved engagement with eminent urban scholars and practitioners, who explored the possibilities of new methods and pedagogies in and around the Urban. This component offered participants an opportunity to learn about and understand a range of methods and data sources unique to urban India, as well as ethical practices in research and the nuances of publishing in academia. Sessions covered topics such as research design, writing, publishing, ethics, and navigating academic life.

Two specialised tracks focused on early-career students in the process of finalising their research questions (Track 1) and late-stage students working towards completing their dissertations (Track 2). During the Student Presentation sessions, participants across tracks were grouped into smaller cohorts and assigned faculty mentors who provided detailed feedback on their research. Participants presented ongoing work on which they sought feedback.

Participants also received individual mentoring and had opportunities to engage with faculty members during Office Hours. Other sessions included interactions with alumni and Masterclasses conducted by invited faculty.

Dates and Procedures 

Logistics 

The PhD Workshop was free of charge, and no participation fee was levied upon selection. Selected participants made their own arrangements for travel and accommodation if they chose to attend the Workshop in person, as IIHS did not provide support in these areas. There were limited options for online participation. Lunch and refreshments were provided throughout the duration of the Workshop.

The PhD Workshop was held at IIHS Sadashivnagar, Bengaluru, from 12–14 January 2026, with limited options for online participation. For queries related to the Workshop, participants were invited to write to research@iihs.ac.in.