Lisa Björkman is an urban anthropologist and faculty member in Urban and Public Affairs. Her research explores urban infrastructure, mediation, and the politics of knowledge and representation. She is the author of Pipe Politics, Contested Waters (Duke University Press, 2015), Waiting Town (Columbia University Press, 2020), Bombay Brokers (Duke University Press, 2021), Drama of Democracy (University of Minnesota Press, 2025), which examine Mumbai’s urban life, everyday brokerage, and the dynamics of democracy, and Napoli Navigators: ethnographies of translation and urban mediation (Berghahn Books, 2027).