Maya Mirchandani is the Head of Department of Media Studies at India’s Ashoka University, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation. Her research focuses on violent extremism, hate speech, and online misinformation. A core focus of Maya’s research is on the impact of social media on discourse around identity politics in South Asia as a result of political propaganda on social media platforms and mainstream mass media. Maya is the Chair of ORF’s annual conference on countering violent extremism, Tackling Insurgent Ideologies. Prior to this, Maya was Foreign Affairs editor at NDTV, India’s pioneering cable news network; and has reported extensively on Indian diplomacy and security and has received the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism twice, the Red Ink Award for reporting on human rights as well as the Exchange for Media Broadcast Journalism Award for best international affairs reporting.