Scripps College Professor Mona G. Mehta will lecture on “Mosaic or Melting Pot: The India Story,” presented by the Malott Commons Tuesday Noon Academy, on November 1, in Scripps College’s Hampton Room of the Malott Commons. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Mehta, assistant professor of politics and international relations, will discuss diversity and cultural difference, as immigration is causing Europe and the United States to face anxieties about their national identities. Specifically, Mehta will focus on how India, with more than 2,000 ethnic groups, provides insights on how democracy and diversity intersect. She will pose the question of whether the Indian model of democracy is a mosaic or a melting pot of diversity, and what 21st century democracies can learn from this model.
Mehta earned her BA degree from the University of Mumbai, India, and speaks Hindi, Gujarati, and Marathi. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Chicago. Her academic focus is on democracy, ethnic conflict, civil society, identity politics in India, and political ethnography.
The Tuesday Noon Academy is a weekly, one-hour series of lectures held in the Hampton Room of the Malott Commons. The doors will open at 11:45 a.m. Bring your own lunch or purchase lunch at the Malott Commons dining hall. Dessert and coffee are provided.
For more information, please contact the Malott Commons Office at 909-607-9372.