About

I’m a journalist, researcher, and teacher. I write about gender, sex, and wellness; art and cultural heritage; and ecology, agriculture, and food. My work centers stories of creativity, community, pleasure, and care in the face of unjust systems. I aim to move in alignment with collective, feminist and liberatory movements against racism, capitalism, colonialism, and caste, and for abolition, queer liberation, and transnational solidarity.

I am a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology at the City University of New York, where my research interests center on the circulation of embodied practices, such as tantra, between the Indian and U.S. spiritual and wellness industries.

I’m also a contributing writer creating in-depth, social justice-centered editorial features about cultural heritage for Curationist, which aggregates digitized art and cultural objects from multiple museums onto one searchable open-source platform.

I was a 2023 New Jersey Sustainability Reporting Fellow with CivicStory. Prior to that, I covered food history and sovereignty as a contributing writer to Atlas Obscura. My gender and sexuality reporting has appeared on platforms including Rewire News Group, POPSUGAR, The Washington Post, The BBC, Teen Vogue, Time, and Bitch. From 2015-2018, I wrote about sexuality and social movements in the U.S. and India as a columnist at Feministing. I’ve also been a wellness columnist with a focus on queer and feminist healing practices for Dame and The Talkspace Voice.

My writing has been cited and anthologized in multiple popular and scholarly outlets, including New York, the Duke Law Journal and several books on consent, queerness, and sexual violence.

I was a 2015-2016 Fulbright fellow in women’s studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi. I completed my MA in Arts and Aesthetics at JNU in 2018. I received a BA in 2015 from Harvard University. My research on Hindi cinema and popular erotica has been published in Critical Collective. I am grateful to constantly learn from friendship and solidarity with Indian feminist, anticaste, and people’s movements.

Comments

6 responses to “About”

  1. Scott Alves Barton Avatar
    Scott Alves Barton

    I enjoyed your piece on Joe Frogger’s boozy salty-sweet cookie history in Atlas…and you leaned in nicely to Dr. Jessica B. Harris’s work, yet you never once included her full name for those folks who would not get the reference.

    1. reinagattuso Avatar
      reinagattuso

      Hey! I just saw this. Thank you for pointing this out. Someone else pointed out the mistake and we corrected it soon after publication. We had moved an earlier mention of Harris in editing to later in the piece, but forgot to also move the full identification. I appreciate you reaching out! Here is the piece with correction: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/joe-froggers-cookies-history

  2. Sandra Avatar
    Sandra

    Hi Reina,
    I greatly appreciated your article about cultivating figs in Italians-America gardens. I recently moved back from living in Italy for five years, which exposed me to my hands-on love for nature and gardening. This past summer, I planted two fig trees which I recently prepped for winter. I hope to have some delicious figs by next August. Buon Natale and I hope to read more articles on the subject. Best, Sandra

    1. reinagattuso Avatar
      reinagattuso

      I appreciate it! Thank you for reading and may you have an ample harvest!

  3. Peter Cortez Avatar
    Peter Cortez

    Reina
    I appreciate your informative and helpful post on what to do with a Nazi flag.
    I have a signed Nazi Flag in my possession. My Mom passed it down to me after my Grandfather died. He was ARMY with the CO L 395th INF.
    After reading your article I decided to donate the flag to March Air Museum in Riverside, CA.
    Thank you
    Peter Cortez

    1. reinagattuso Avatar
      reinagattuso

      Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this. What an incredible story! I’m glad you found a home for the flag where it can keep your grandfather’s memory alive and help others understand history.

      Wishing you the best,
      Reina

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