Thomas Chambers

Thomas Chambers is a Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University, UK. His work focuses on labour, migration, urban marginalization, and Muslim communities in India. He holds a BA (First Class Hons) in International Development from the University of Liverpool, an MSc in Cross-Cultural Research Methods from the University of Sussex, and a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Sussex. His research examines the intersections of bureaucracy, citizenship, and socio-economic marginalization, particularly through ethnographic methods.

Chambers co-founded the Labour, Work, and Development Network and co-edits a Special Issue on domestic labour in India for the Journal of South Asian Development. His teaching emphasizes innovative pedagogy, including Brechtian approaches to teaching spatial practices. He actively engages with contemporary challenges such as digitization of state bureaucracies and pandemic-era fieldwork adaptations.

Key publications include analyses of bureaucratic mediation in India, gendered state encounters, and performed conviviality in urban spaces. His research spans over a decade, with a consistent focus on marginalized communities and the socio-economic structures impacting their lives.