Madhuri Kamtam is a doctoral researcher in Global Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK. Her research interests span labour economics, the political economy of development, gender, caste, econometrics, and public policy. Her Ph.D. research is highly interdisciplinary, critically examining labour laws, the welfare state, and gendered collective action in home-based occupations, with a particular focus on the beedi industry in Telangana, India. 

Her research employs mixed methods and draws on Sen’s capability approach, analysed through an intersectional feminist lens. Madhuri’s doctoral work involves extensive fieldwork conducted in Telangana over ten months, during which she surveyed 320 beedi workers, conducted 60 semi-structured interviews, and facilitated two focus groups with unions. She engages with a range of stakeholders, including workers, unions, contractors, policymakers, and labour welfare officers. 

She is also a Yale Academics Stand Against Poverty (ASAP) fellow with the Yale Global Justice Group, committed to advancing justice through research and advocacy. 

Madhuri holds an MSc in Development Economics from SOAS, University of London, and an undergraduate degree in Economics (Hons) from Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India. Both her master's and undergraduate theses involved significant fieldwork focused on labour and employment issues, particularly NREGA and beedi workers, as well as issues surrounding inclusive growth and welfare. 

At UEA, Madhuri has designed and delivered lectures and seminars across five courses—Global Challenges, Academic Skills, Tools and Skills for Development, South Asian Development, and Geographies of the Unequal World—teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She has also contributed to marking and assessment. 

Madhuri holds Associate Fellow status from the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), awarded by Advance HE, in recognition of her commitment to inclusive teaching. 

Beyond academia, Madhuri has facilitated workshops between UEA students and marginalised school communities in India, fostering transnational learning exchanges and reinforcing her commitment to inclusive and decolonial education. 

She has presented her research at leading academic conferences, including those at Cambridge, Oxford, Essex, Leeds, Exeter and SOAS, and has published on topics such as women’s work, labour, gender, and caste. 

In recognition of her academic work, she won a Best Paper Award at Cambridge and has attended prominent summer schools, including one in Palermo, Italy, on island methodologies, and an advanced graduate workshop at Azim Premji University in Bangalore on poverty and globalisation, in collaboration with the Institute of New Economic Thinking and Columbia University. 

Besides her primary research, Madhuri also writes on issues such as international students, mental health, caste, and belonging, and is vocal about these topics. As a passionate advocate for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), she is involved in various EDI projects in the UK, including with UEA, the Development Studies Association, and King’s College London. 

She co-authored a piece in ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies that emerged from her participation in UEA’s “Time, Space, Belonging, and Mental Health” workshop, amplifying the voices of Black and minority ethnic doctoral students. Additionally, Madhuri has spoken about caste and gender discrimination through platforms such as the University of Cambridge’s mental health podcast, in collaboration with the Student Mental Health Network UK, and the University of Salford’s conference on decolonising postgraduate research. 

Before beginning her Ph.D., Madhuri worked at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare in Oxford.