In this episode, we’ll hear from Lisa Björkman on her new book: Drama of Democracy: Political Representation in Mumbai. Dr. Bjorkman explains her approach to democracy through performance, emphasizing audience, interpretation, and "uptake" in how political displays are encountered and evaluated. The conversation explores representation as an embodied, real-time process shaped through rallies, crowds, and affective communication, and considers how Mumbai’s political theatricality challenges common assumptions about truth, emotion, and authoritarianism.

Drama of Democracy: Political Representation in Mumbai is available now through The University of Minnesota Press.

For more information about AIIS programs, visit indiastudies.org.

Produced by AIIS
Intro and Outro music: “Desh” by Stephen Slawek

In this episode, we’ll meet the new Executive Director of AIIS, Dr. Emily Rook-Koepsel. As many of you know, the long-time US Director of AIIS, Dr. Elise Auerbach, retired this spring and has left us an incredible legacy of language, research, and outreach programs that have become the gold standard across disciplines for study abroad. Today, we’ll hear from Dr. Rook-Koepsel about this next era of AIIS, the plans for the future, and what to look forward to this year.

For more information about AIIS programs, visit indiastudies.org.

Produced by AIIS
Intro and Outro music: “Desh” by Stephen Slawek