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