IISER Bhopal IPDF Humanities Recruitment 2026

IISER Bhopal Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Recruitment 2026: Overview

The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal (IISER Bhopal) is taking in one Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow (IPDF) for its Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Office of the Dean, Faculty Affairs. This is a research position rather than a teaching job: you build your own project under a principal investigator, and you help with the department's courses alongside it. The institute is looking for someone working in literature and the humanities, not in the sciences that IISER is better known for — so if your doctorate is in English literature or a neighbouring humanities field, this is a rare opening at a national institute. Scholars who have submitted their thesis but are still waiting for the degree can apply as well.

Posts and Disciplines

• Postcolonial South Asian literatures: literary study of the region's writing after empire.
• Environmental Humanities and Blue Humanities: work on land, water and climate as they appear in culture and writing.
• Medical Humanities: the cultural and literary side of health, illness and care.
• Conflict and Memory Studies: how communities write and remember violence.
• South Asian Partition literature: the writing of 1947 and its long afterlife.

You apply against one fellowship and name the area you want to work in; the department reads your research plan against these listed areas.

Service Conditions and Caveats

• Tenure: One year to start with, extendable by one more year if your performance is found satisfactory.
• Degree deadline: If you join with your thesis submitted but the degree still awaited, you must produce the provisional or final degree certificate within six months of joining — otherwise the appointment stands cancelled or is decided in consultation with the thesis processing authority. Until you submit it, you are paid at the reduced fellowship rate, and the full rate is restored from the date the degree is awarded.
• Medical insurance: You must hold a medical insurance policy of at least Rs. 1,00,000 in your own name, valid through the whole fellowship. The institute does not reimburse medical expenses.
• Leave and OPD: Fellows get leave and OPD medical facilities on the same terms as the institute's postgraduate students, as laid down in the PG Manual.
• Accommodation: The institute provides no accommodation to IPDFs, so plan your stay in Bhopal yourself.
• Earlier applicants: If you already applied for this research area against the institute's July 2026 advertisement, your application is still in the running and you do not need to apply again.
• Shortlisting: Meeting the eligibility bar does not give you a claim to an interview call — only shortlisted candidates are called.

Application Submission Notes

This one is applied for by e-mail. Send your documents to office_hss@iiserb.ac.in with the subject line written exactly as "Application for the post of Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow (HSS)". Your mail should carry the filled application form in PDF as per Annexure-I of the advertisement, your latest CV, a full list of publications, and a research plan for one year in not more than two pages.

Incomplete applications are not processed, and the institute does not answer interim enquiries about your application, so check your attachments once before you hit send.

• Develop an independent research project under the guidance of the principal investigator
• Carry out individual and collaborative research in the chosen humanities area
• Publish research findings and present them at seminars and conferences
• Take part in public engagement and outreach activities linked to the research
• Assist in teaching the department's courses as the department requires
• Guide graduate and undergraduate students, including tutorials and student projects
• Handle the organisational and administrative work connected with the research