Prerna Vij is a master's candidate at the University of Chicago in the Committee on International Relations. She graduated from Ashoka University, India in 2022 with a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science, English and Creative Writing. She joined CPOST as a Research Assistant in the fall of 2022. Her research delves into the rise of the vigilante state, elections in India, and the rise of authoritarianism in South Asia. She also likes to read and write about the partition, cities in India, and punjabi family dramas.