Ashok Kumar

Ashok Kumar is a Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor of Political Economy at Birkbeck Business School, part of Birkbeck, University of London. His research focuses on globalization, capitalism theories, urban development, race and labor dynamics. He holds a PhD from Oxford University, an MSc from LSE, and a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work bridges Marxist theory with contemporary labor movements, global supply chains, and structural power analysis.

His seminal book Monopsony Capitalism (2020) received major awards, analyzing global production's structural power dynamics. Research is supported by grants like the Fulbright Scholarship and Leverhulme Fellowship. Public engagement includes BBC, Sky News, and Al Jazeera commentary on labor rights and economic crises.

Teaching spans postgraduate courses like Globalization and Dynamics of Global Capitalism. Supervised PhD students include Panagiotis Iliopoulos (2022 graduate) and others exploring capital-labor relations and neoliberalism.

Scientific awards include the Paul Sweezy Book Prize (2021) and Immanuel Wallerstein Award (2022). Research explores how global value chains shape worker agency, with recent work dissecting monopsony power's decline and its implications for labor movements.