Maya Mirchandani is Assistant Professor of Broadcast Journalism and Media Studies at Ashoka University. For nearly three decades, she was a practicing journalist with NDTV, reporting on Indian foreign policy, conflict and national politics. Maya has won 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. More recently, Maya has been involved in research on ‘Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism’ (P/CVE) at the Delhi based think tank, Observer Research Foundation. Her research looks for ways to build counter narratives to prevent radicalization and extremist violence through dialogue and community intervention. The analysis of hate speech and the impact of counter speech messaging on social media is also a core focus of her research.

Maya obtained degrees in History from Delhi University and Mass Communications from Sofia’s in Mumbai. She also received a post-graduate Diploma in World Politics from the London School of Economics in order to guide and better inform her international affairs reportage. She continues to be an active journalist and media commentator with regular columns and a weekly video blog called Wide Angle with Maya Mirchandani for TheWire.in where she debates and discusses issues of foreign policy, national security and human rights.