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Biography

Raghavi Viswanath is an Indian legal academic and consultant in the fields of international human rights law and international criminal law. She is a doctoral researcher at the European University Institute in Florence where she is supported by a scholarship from Nuffic-Beurs. Her doctoral project proposes a multimedia, ethnographic reimagination of cultural rights in international human rights law using non/counterhegemonic epistemologies. Her project draws on months-long collaborative fieldwork with the Irulars, a semi-nomadic community based in southern India. The doctoral thesis draws on Raghavi’s academic interest in challenging dominant epistemologies in international law, her passion for music and fine arts, and her own lived experience as an Indian lawyer navigating academia in Europe.


Raghavi holds postgraduate degrees from Leiden Law School and the University of Oxford, and a Bachelor of Arts and Law degree from the National Law Institute University (India). From September-December 2022, she was a visiting fellow at the Amsterdam Centre for International Law. Alongside her PhD, Raghavi is a consultant for cultural rights collectives in India and Kenya, a Research Associate at the Global Citizenship Observatory, and a Senior Research Associate at Public International Law and Policy Group. Raghavi has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at the National Law School of India University, the University of Firenze, the University of Salamanca, La Sapienza University, Ashoka University, and the University of East London. Raghavi’s broader interests lie in rights of minorities, racism in international law, decolonial approaches to international law, and international criminal law.

ACADEMIC HONORS AND GRANTS

  • Recipient of the Socio-Legal Studies Association fieldwork grant for doctoral fieldwork (2023-24). Financial support for fieldwork in the south Indian districts of Cuddalore and Villupuram with the Irular community.
  • Recipient of the Erasmus Traineeship mobility grant for a visiting fellowship at the Amsterdam Centre for International Law (September-December 2022).
  • Winner of the Decentering Eurocentrism grant at the EUI (March 2022).
  • EUI-Nuffic Beurs Scholarship for doctoral research at the EUI (2020 – 2024).
  • Recipient of the Oxford-Meron IRMCT Internship Award (2019).
  • Recipient of the Sir Richard May Trust award for the UNIRMCT internship (2019).
  • Recipient of the JN Tata Academic Excellence Scholarship (2019).
  • Recipient of the JN Tata Endowment Loan Scholarship (2018-19).
  • Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma Memorial Gold Medal (highest overall marks in the B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) programme 2013-18)
  • Professor V.S.Rekhi Founder Director Memorial Gold Medal (highest overall marks in the B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) programme 2013-18)
  • Justice Guru Prasanna Singh Memorial Gold Medal (highest overall marks in the B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) programme 2013-18)
  • Late Mrs Pratibha Dubey Memorial Gold Medal (highest overall marks in the B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) programme 2013-18)
  • Pt Ramlalji Sharma Memorial Gold Medal (highest overall marks in the B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) programme 2013-18)
  • Association of Indian Professionals’ Silver Medal for Academic Excellence (2013, 2011).