Renu Desai is an independent researcher based in Ahmedabad. She holds a PhD in architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. Her work engages with questions of urbanization, urban planning and governance, informality and housing in Indian cities. She examines how poor communities experience and negotiate urban life, as well as aspects of policy, planning, governance and politics that shape the conditions for their inclusion and exclusion. Since 2014, her research has engaged closely with migrant workers—their entitlements, housing conditions, and the dynamics of their lives and livelihoods which stretch across rural and urban contexts.

She has published in leading journals including Antipode, Economic and Political Weekly, Environment and Urbanization, Environment and Urbanization ASIA, International Development Planning Review, Marg, Public Culture, Vikalpa and Water Alternatives. She has also authored book chapters, working papers and research reports, and is co-editor of Urbanizing Citizenship: Contested Spaces in Indian Cities (New Delhi: Sage 2012).

Renu is one of the founding directors of ShelterSquare Foundation (SSF), a non-profit established in 2023 to promote equitable and dignified housing for workers in the unorganised and informal sectors. She was previously a research fellow at the Centre for Urban Equity, CEPT University (2011-19). She has been a visiting faculty at CEPT University for several years, and has also taught in the Anant Fellowship at Anant University, Ahmedabad.