Professor R. Mahalakshmi is a faculty member at the Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She held the position of Secretary at the Indian History Congress from 2019 to 2022. In recognition of her scholarly contributions, she was honoured with the Prof. Hira Lal Gupta Research Award for her monograph titled, The Making of the Goddess (Penguin, 2011), during the 74th Session of the Indian History Congress in 2013. Additionally, Professor Mahalakshmi serves as a Co-Director in the International Project on ‘Indian and Korea: A Comparative Study of Colonialism’, which is funded by the AKS, Korea.