EDUCATION:
2000 MBA, University of Hartford, CT, USA
1997 BA, Corporate Secretaryship, Ethiraj College for Women, University of Madras, Chennai
Rekha Raghunathan
Lead – Word Lab | raghunathanr at iihs dot ac dot in
Countries: India, USA
States: Tamil Nadu, Telengana, Karnataka
Cities: Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, New York
Languages: English, Hindi, Tamil
Rekha Raghunathan helped set up the IIHS Word Lab in 2015 which: anchors institutional editorial and publishing including the production of its interdisciplinary journal Urbanisation; explores questions of language and translation in publications and teaching; builds collaborations with digital and public media platforms; and curates an annual public writings festival, City Scripts. She has helped produce book length publications, working papers, grey literature, academic writing and public writing. She is part of the Editorial Collective of Urbanisation, and holds the book and film reviews section.
Rekha conducts writing workshops for external and internal audiences and teaches writing skills as part of the IIHS Urban Fellows Programme. She and her colleagues at the Word Lab have created a MOOC on Coursera titled, ‘Writing and Disseminating Grey Literature’, aimed at helping researchers and practitioners develop hands-on skills in writing across public facing formats such as op-eds, data stories, and social media posts. Articles edited by Rekha have been published in The Hindu, EPW, Scroll.in, The Wire and IndiaSpend, among other print and online media platforms.
With members of the Word Lab, Rekha co-wrote and won a grant from the Earth Journalism Network, and supported project work, publications and other deliverables. Rekha works across projects and themes at IIHS including climate change, disaster risk resilience, education, sustainable development goals (SDGs), water/sanitation (WASH), housing, digital labour, and solid waste management. She also helps manage the IIHS Library, and is focused on building its public engagements as well as a vibrant community of users. The Word Lab, with support from the Library team, curates and hosts a monthly series of talks under the banner Public Texts.
Prior to IIHS, Rekha ran India Water Portal (Arghyam) and was instrumental in building the portal’s connections with the media, resulting in its content being read by a diverse audience. She was an Editorial Consultant with several NGOs and think tanks, and anchored the production of boxed sets, book length publications, and other grey literature.