Penn Calendar Penn A-Z School of Arts and Sciences University of Pennsylvania

Decolonizing Indian International Relations: Postcolonial Populists and Ethical Quandaries

Kira Huju
Monday, March 25, 2024

Over the past few years of working as a critical scholar of International Relations (IR) toward “decolonizing” the discipline, I have learned to be careful what I wish for. To decolonize academic knowledge means interrogating the traditionally Western-centric forms of thought and inquiry that are presented as universal. It means unseating the West as the theoretical benchmark and empirical focus point and taking seriously the many ways in which imperial legacies shape contemporary international politics.

Passionate Politics: Democracy, Development, and India’s 2019 General Elections

Indrajit Roy
Monday, March 11, 2024

In India’s general elections, scheduled for April-May 2024, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to repeat, if not outdo, its 2019 performance. In those elections, the party and its allies garnered 45 percent of the vote share and won over 300 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha. Few observers had anticipated this scale of victory, subsequently attributed to factors ranging from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s persona, the BJP’s superior party organization and higher levels of financial endowments, and its skillful blending of Hindutva, nationalism, and social welfare.

Building the Yard: Policy Considerations for AI in India

Bharath Reddy
Monday, February 26, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) has immense potential to enhance human capabilities and drive growth in several industries. It is projected to greatly improve governance, healthcare, and education outcomes. However, this potential may not be realized if the building blocks of AI remain concentrated in the hands of a few dominant companies or the countries in which they are located.

When Legal Procedures are Informally Copy-Pasted: Divorce Matters in India

Yugank Goyal
Monday, February 12, 2024

How are disputes resolved when formal legal processes are difficult to follow and customary norms of dispute resolution have not quite evolved? I uncover that in certain types of cases; people resolve the dispute informally while adopting a formal court-like structure, almost mimicking official procedures. People set up dispute resolution processes that are cosmetically similar to the formal system and behave “as if” the entire process is legal.