“I am Carmen Castillo: hotel worker, representative, union member, city councilwoman. That’s me, and I want to continue being like that for the rest of my life.” This is how Carmen Castillo begins telling her extraordinary political story.

With a crucial national election looming in India, and with Indian citizens able to vote from abroad for the first time in history, on April 2 Duke students from India provided their insights into the upcoming election.

Think it’s hard being a college student? Try being a political representative as well. On March 4, POLIS: Duke’s Center for Political Leadership, Innovation, and Service invited two young elected officials to speak on Duke’s campus.

Becoming a lawyer was not a proactive choice for Zhubin Parang, but rather a default option after graduating from college. “Law was possibly the most safe profession that I could think of at the time that did not require knowing math,” he said. That might help explain why after practicing corporate law for four years, Parang decided to quit his job and pursue a career in comedy. But, as he said in a talk this month to POLIS and Sanford School of Public Policy students, it also explains why he’s comfortable doing comedy with a political edge.

Mike Abramowitz, president of Freedom House, and Sanford School Dean Judith Kelley shared a timely message in a Feb. 25 panel discussion: Democracy is “not a one-way street,” and democratic nations can fall back into authoritarianism.

Duke University boasts seven alums currently serving in the U.S. Congress. On February 18, Duke University welcomed its third of the 2018-2019 academic year: Scott Peters ’80, who spoke to Duke students at the Sanford School of Public Policy.

Mo Elleithee, former spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and later for the Democratic National Committee, has no interest in partisan politics. During a talk last week at Duke, Elleithee explained why.

One of the most influential figures in the American conservative movement over the last 40 years, Grover Norquist spoke Feb. 7 at Duke about conservatism, issue advocacy, and his longstanding role in politics.

After the 2018 mass shooting in his Pittsburgh neighborhood of Squirrel Hill at the Tree of Life synagogue, where his parents were married and his closest friends regularly attended services, junior David Frisch began planning a campus panel discussion on how to reduce gun violence.

What is it like to work on a presidential campaign? About 40 Duke students gathered Jan. 17 to hear stories from the campaigning front lines from experienced students and staff.