Simanti Lahiri

(PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Simanti LahiriSimanti Lahiri joins Kellogg as a visiting fellow for the 2008 spring semester to develop her book project “Consumed by Commitment: Suicide Protest in the Contentious Politics of South Asia.” Based on several months of fieldwork in India and Sri Lanka, the project brings together her research interests in comparative politics, the politics of South Asia, political violence, social movements, terrorism, protest, and democratization. 

Her manuscript examines the motivations for and the successful use of suicide protest in South Asia. Lahiri extends her analysis to investigate the effects of suicide protest on democratic institutions, democratic consolidation, and the meaning of democracy. She plans to expand her existing research on the impact of suicide protest on the democratic governments of India and Sri Lanka with a comparative analysis of the authoritarian regimes of Afghanistan and Nepal.

Copyright 2007 • the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the University of Notre Dame

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