I am a visiting researcher at C-EENRG/Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge for 24 months until April 2026.
Biography
Malavika Rao is a Postdoctoral Researcher at C-EENRG, Department of Land Economy at the University of Cambridge. She is a recipient of the Post-doc Mobility Fellowship (2024-2026) by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). Malavika holds a PhD in International Law from the Geneva Graduate Institute (2024), an LLM in Environmental Law, and Energy and Clean Technology Law from the University of California, Berkeley (2017), and a Degree in Law (BALLB(Hons.)) from Christ University, India (2016). Prior to joining the PhD program, she worked as a Utility Justice Legal Fellow at The Utility Reform Network (TURN) in San Francisco (2017-2018).
Malavika’s areas of research are environmental law, migration law, the right to food, and climate change. Her doctoral work explored the application of the principle of non-refoulement to people fleeing food deprivation. As a post-doc at C-EENRG, Malavika will explore the international legal infrastructure underpinning food flows and food distribution. Malavika is a Research Affiliate of the Refugee Law Initiative at the School of Advanced Study of the University of London, and at the Global Migration Centre in Geneva.
Publications
A TWAIL Perspective on Loss and Damage from Climate Change: Reflections from Indira Gandhi’s Speech at Stockholm, Asian Journal of International Law, Cambridge University Press (2022).
Should Internal Migrants Who Cannot Return Home Due To COVID-19 be Treated as Disaster IDPs? Lessons from India, Refugee Survey Quarterly (Special Issue on Internal Displacement), Oxford University Press (2020).
India’s pandemic exodus was a biological disaster and stranded migrant workers should be classified as internally displaced, The Conversation (2021).
India: Los millones de trabajadores afectados por el éxodo pandémico deben ser considerados desplazados internos (translated), The Conversation (2021).
