Established in 1959, the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (DoHSS) at IIT Madras is one of the institute's oldest and most respected departments and it contributes significantly to IIT Madras' reputation as a globally recognized center of excellence. The department is essentially multi-disciplinary in nature and has faculty from diverse streams, such as Development Studies, Economics, English, Environmental Studies, Film Studies, Health Studies, History, International Relations, Philosophy, Politics, and Sociology. The department offers MA programmes and doctoral programmes in humanities and social sciences besides elective courses for the undergraduate and post-graduate programmes of the Institute. The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences fosters a vibrant academic community dedicated to rigorous research, interdisciplinary learning, and the holistic development of its students, equipping them with critical thinking, analytical skills, and cultural awareness.

In times that test the meaning and purpose of education, we turn again to its essence: learning as awakening, love as relation, and liberation as becoming. Education today stands at a crossroads where the human mind, the social fabric, and intelligent technologies intersect in unprecedented ways. Education has always been a journey, from knowing to becoming, from understanding to valuing, and from information to insight. The contemporary learner inhabits a world of accelerated information, fluid identities, and shifting epistemologies. In such a world, education can no longer remain confined within disciplinary silos or traditional pedagogic models; it must evolve as an ecosystem of thinking, feeling, and creating.

The conference 'Learning, Love, and Liberation: Reimagining Education through Multiple Lenses of Knowing and Becoming'seeks to explore the intertwined realms of cognition, emotion, and emancipation in education. It envisions a dialogue between the mind and the heart, between the structures of knowledge and the ethics of care, between learning as acquisition and learning as transformation.

At a time when education is increasingly technologized, standardized, and instrumentalized, this conference aims to restore the human to the centre of educational discourse. It draws upon the philosophical triad of Learning, Love, and Liberation: learning as the pursuit of understanding, love as the emotional and ethical ground of humane, and liberation as the emancipatory aim of education.

This conference invites scholars, researchers, educators, and practitioners to explore the multiple dimensions of learning, teaching, and knowing: from neural pathways that shape cognition to social pathways that construct meaning and justice. The conference seeks to bring together philosophical reflections, psychological insights, technological innovations, and policy perspectives to envision the future of education that is both humane and intellectually rigorous, especially in the context of provisions of NEP-2020 and the fulfilment of SDG-4: Quality Education.