While designing the theme “Political Communication and Democratic Participation” for this year’s CPSRC Fest, our hopes for it were not only to be an academic conference, but a shared discussion, a discussion which would bring together students, researchers, thinkers on the around the world continents at large to contemplate how words, ideas & emotions construct democracy now. Looking back, the fest did just that.
It had been clear from the beginning that what was being congregated here was not a collection of papers, but that of points of view. In my welcome note, I talked about increasing relevance of comparative politics as a forum where the act of communication itself is a political one, where the research can be heard, translated and interacted with across different democratic traditions. The inaugural note as a keynote address was delivered, which was a reminder of what IAPSS stands for: a worldwide student community connecting intellectual curiosity with civic engagement through Mr. Soumyadeep Chowdhury, Vice President, and Head of the Academic Department.
The fest began with a captivating guest lecture delivered by Dr. Norbert Merkovity, whose topic was “Mapping the Field: Global Trends in Political Communication Research (2000-2019).” His talk outlined how political communication has developed from examining campaign oratory to examining the fraught interplay between algorithms, disinformation, and public belief. It was a challenge to reconsider what it is to “communicate politically” at a moment when online sites broker almost every instance of persuasion.
The Inter-SRC panel talks, presented on August 20, 2025, demonstrated how local political configurations cross over with global questions of governance and communication. Each talk manifested the IAPSS ethos of comparative and critical inquiry, underlining that political communication is never neutral but always constructed with power and framing. Dr. Sanghamitra Mallick probed the Belt and Road Initiative of China and its communications strategies in Sri Lanka, uncovering the ways development discourses propagate geopolitical power. Dr. Meenakshi Bansal and Taslima Tariq conducted an examination of women’s representation on Iranian TV, revealing how media makes up and restricts political agency. Nestor F. Aranibar Campero presented a discussion on discourses of sustainable development, querying the moral and ideological presumptions underlying global policy discourse. Deborah Sike considered youth participation in post-conflict democracies in Africa, with communicative disjunctures between institutions and citizens identified. Saareena Asrar discussed digital activism and shaping of collective memory in Authoritarian and Post-Conflict states, demonstrating that spaces online both contest and reproduce inequality. Jointly, these varied views exposed how communication among states, screens, and societies operates as a space of contention, imagination, and power. The Inter-SRC session was a testament to IAPSS’s dedication to critical discourse that bridges regional experience and global inquiry.
The Intra-CPSRC panel then brought the discussion home with penetrating analysis from inside South and Southeast Asia. Adarsh Prasad’s analysis of Bihar’s electoral system examined how electoral trust is being transformed by digital technologies, while Sanjaya Suna’s paper on social justice in Odisha showed how marginalized voices make communication a tool of resistance. Alisha Khan’s paper on PTI’s election campaign in Pakistan, Ankit Raj’s examination of Operation Sindoor and traditional media, and Arka Palit’s investigation into fake propaganda on social media all revealed the thin line between political tactics and public manipulation.
The highlight of the fest was the special talk by Prof. Sanjay Kumar, whose talk was on “The Changing Landscape of Electoral Behavior and Political Messaging in Contemporary Democracies.” As a seasoned election analyst, he reminded us with his extensive experience that even if the reach is boosted through technology, credibility remains a function of authenticity. His observations about the shift towards emotions in voter appeal were especially poignant a reminder that the rhetoric of democracy needs to stay human even when it goes digital. The final events Sofia Perusso’s thought-provoking panel “Words as Weapons: Navigating Conflict through Communication” and the group movie analysis on propaganda film transformed reflection into empathy. They invited us to consider communication not merely as a political tool, but rather a moral decision that creates the world we live in.
Serving on the CPSRC, what touched me most was the way our committee turned this fest into a collective experience. Each session wasn’t just a display of intellectual vigor, but a shared sense of accountability a sense that doing comparative politics is not a matter of observing democracy from a distance but engaging with it through discussion.
The CPSRC Fest 2025 proved anew what is at the very core of democracy: it thrives on discussion. It occurs when young intellectuals from diverse backgrounds engage in dialogue and exchange ideas critique assumptions and make links beyond ideological chasms. Political communication is thus not strategy or persuasion or even power it is relation. For the future, I envision the CPSRC not merely as a scholarly collective, but a vibrant practice of democracy a site where papers, panels, and questions become performances of citizen politics. As the fest has closed, its spirit lives on through our collective vow of infusing dialogue with curiosity, open-endedness, and empathetic imagination.
The CPSRC Fest 2025’s success was entirely a collaborative effort. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Colby Gauthier, President of IAPSS, for his consistent support and motivation; the previous members of the CPSRC Executive Committee, whose preliminary work served as the foundation upon which we kept building; and the Academic Department of IAPSS, with special regards to Mr. Soumyadeep Chowdhury, Vice President and Head, and Ms. Soumya Tiwari, Deputy Head, for their dedicated advice throughout the event. My heartfelt thanks also to IAPSS Media Team for taking our discussions to the global map, and the Chairs and members of our sister committees AOSRC, GISRC, PTSRC, and GPSRC in-Charge Chair and members for their most active participation and coordination. Above all, I am gratefully thankful to all CPSRC members, whose commitment, creativity, and coordination turned this bash from idea to a very motivational debate on democracy.
Author Bio
Thiruppathi P
Former Chair, Comparative Politics Student Research Committee (CPSRC), IAPSS
Thiruppathi P is the former Chair and now a member of the Comparative Politics Student Research Committee (CPSRC) at the International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS). He is a Ph.D. Research Scholar in Political Science at the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru. His research focuses on political communication, activism, populism, and welfare politics in Tamil Nadu, with a particular interest in Dravidian political movements. He actively engages in comparative political research, academic collaborations, and international scholarly dialogues.
