Dr
Preeti
Raghunath
(she/her)

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Lecturer in Digital Media and Society

International Officer, Sociological Studies

Preeti Raghunath
Profile picture of Preeti Raghunath
p.raghunath@sheffield.ac.uk
Floor C, The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Preeti Raghunath
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Floor C
The Wave
2 Whitham Road

Sheffield

S10 2AH

Profile

Preeti Raghunath joined the Department of Sociological Studies in May 2023 as a Lecturer in Digital Media and Society. Prior to joining the University of Sheffield, she was a Lecturer in Communication and Media at Monash University, Malaysia. Preeti holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Hyderabad and a Masters in International Relations and Politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. She has worked as a print and broadcast journalist, and in communications and research.

Qualifications

PhD Communication
MA International Relations and Politics
BA Communication & Journalism, Literature, Political Science

Research interests

Preeti’s multidisciplinary research focuses on histories and lived experiences of communication technology policies. Her doctoral research was an expansive ethnography of policymaking for community radio in South Asia, now available as (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

Preeti has carried out funded research on ‘Hated’ Speech, AI Policies, gender and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in Southeast Asia, sustainability and digital transformation, sociotechnical AI Safety, and the impacts of AI data infrastructures in the Global South. Preeti’s current research is on AI data centres and their socio-ecological impacts, and the politics of clean energy and the AI economy in India.

Her work has been published in Global Media and Communication, Journal of Communication, Technology and Regulation, International Journal of Communication, with forthcoming papers to be published in Media, Culture and Society, Convergence, and Communication, Culture, Critique. She is currently working on her second monograph under contract with Bristol University Press.

Publications

Books

  • Raghunath P (2020) Community radio policies in South Asia: a deliberative policy ecology approach. Palgrave Macmillan Singapore.

Journal articles

  • Raghunath P (2026) Data in India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): A Deliberative Policy Ecology Approach. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, 20, 417-434.
  • Lim JBY, Raghunath P & Bächtold S (2024) . Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 15(3), 309-324.
  • Raghunath P (2024) . Technology and Regulation, 2024, 37-46.
  • Raghunath P & Koshy S (2022) . Journal of Digital Media & Policy, 13(1), 3-8.
  • Azulay J-P (2022) . Revue Neurologique, 178(1-2), 3-3.
  • Raghunath P (2022) . Global Media and Communication, 18(1), 49-66.
  • Dutta M, Ramasubramanian S, Barrett M, Elers C, Sarwatay D, Raghunath P, Kaur S, Dutta D, Jayan P, Rahman M , Tallam E et al (2021) . Journal of Communication, 71(5), 803-826.
  • Raghunath P (2020) . Asia Pacific Media Educator, 30(1), 131-135.
  • Raghunath P (2014) . Media Asia, 41(1), 22-23.

Book chapters

  • Raghunath P (2026) , Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business (pp. 1-26). Springer Nature Switzerland
  • Raghunath P (2026) , Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business (pp. 173-179). Springer Nature Switzerland
  • Raghunath P (2025) , Handbook of Progressive Politics (pp. 434-447). Edward Elgar Publishing
  • Raghunath P & Rahman A (2024) In Padovani C, Wavre V, Hintz A, Goggin G & Iosifidis P (Ed.), Global Communication Governance at the Crossroads (pp. 389-410). Palgrave Macmillan
  • Raghunath P (2023) In Mutsvairo B, Bebawi S & Borges-Rey E (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Journalism in the Global South (pp. 111-120). Routledge
  • Raghunath P (2023) , The Routledge Companion to Journalism in the Global South (pp. 111-120). Routledge
  • Raghunath P (2023) , Routledge Companion to Journalism in the Global South (pp. 111-120).
  • Raghunath P (2022) In Ganter SA & Badr H (Ed.), Media Governance: A Cosmopolitan Critique (pp. 261-281). Palgrave Macmillan Cham
  • Raghunath P (2020) Deliberating Community Radio in India: A policy ethnography, Community Radio in South Asia Reclaiming the Airwaves (pp. 21-43).

Reports

  • Raghunath P, Jaimee S & Guariso D (2025) Unpacking the Interrelationships between the Global Digitalization Index and Human Development
  • Fournier-Tombs E, Lee JH, Yang M & Raghunath P (2024)
  • Fournier-Tombs E, Lee JH, Suriyawongkul A, Raghunath P, Dailey M, Chatterjee JS, Doneys P, Suthorn W, Thongprasert S, Villanueva K & Belda F (2023) Gender-sensitive AI Policy in Southeast Asia

Other

  • Raghunath P (2021) Translating experience into enunciation: on conducting a policy ethnography in South Asia: A researcher reflects on what it means to translate policy ethnography into action.. Economic and Political Weekly, 56(22), 63-64.

Preprints

  • Raghunath P (2019) .
Research group

Preeti is part of the Governance and Public Policy research theme/cluster at SPIR.

She is a Fellow and ECR rep at the IGSD, co-leads the CIRCLE Tech and Care research group and is involved with Shef.AI at 51²è¹Ý¶ù.

Preeti co-runs the AI Policy Clinic with colleagues at 51²è¹Ý¶ù, where students sign up to carry out research on topics exploring the societal impacts of AI, respond to policy consultations, and undertake advocacy and wider engagement.
 

Grants

Preeti has secured grants from IDRC-funded FemFirst Research Observatory (IT for Change), Sheffield’s Faculty of Social Sciences Research Stimulation Fund, Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, UKRI-SSHRC, Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). 

She was shortlisted for the UKRI Policy Fellowship in 2025-26. She has held consultancies with UNU-Macau (for ITU and UN Women).

She was the recipient of the Best Paper Award from the Communication Technology and Policy section at IAMCR 2018. 

Teaching interests

Postgraduate supervision

Preeti welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD candidates exploring the situated and lived experiences of AI and data policies, infrastructures and practices. She is particularly interested in bridging elemental media theory and technology policy.

Teaching activities

Preeti teaches the following modules:

  • SPR421 Perspectives on Digital Society (MA DMS)
  • SPR316 Digital Media Work Placement (BA DMS)
  • SPR227 Social Research Design and Methods (BA DMS)
  • SPR324 Global Data Industries (BA DMS)
Professional activities and memberships

Preeti is the Editor of Critical Policy Studies (Taylor and Francis) and the Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business Series. She is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Digital Media and Policy. She is a member of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA), where she co-leads the Global South research network.

Preeti is an External Examiner, BA (Radio and Television) for the British University in Egypt, Cairo. She has served as an interview panelist for EPSRC’s Turing AI Pioneer Interdisciplinary Fellowship, on the annual awards committees of the Labor Tech Research Network, and is a reviewer for Oxford and Bristol University Presses, Routledge, Sage, Palgrave Macmillan, and various journals. 

Partnerships, engagement and impact

Preeti is part of the AI+Planetary Justice Alliance. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of Utopia Theatre, Sheffield. She was instrumental in developing inter-institutional partnerships for research cooperation between Monash University, Malaysia and United Nations University, Macau. Her research report on Hated Speech features in Columbia University’s Global Freedom of Expression curriculum. Based on her PhD research, she was part of a national consultation with the Government of India on media policy in 2017.

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