Rachel Kurian is an international labour economist at the International Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She holds degrees in Mathematics and Economics, and has studied at Madras University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, University of Cambridge, UK and the University of Amsterdam, where she completed her Ph.D in 1989. Her teaching, research, project and consultancy work have focused on trade unions, gender politics, women and child workers, social exclusion, human rights, poverty and labour in the context of economic restructuring. She has field experiences in Asia (Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, South Korea), Latin America (Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador), Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados) Africa (Mauritius, Tanzania, South Africa, Zimbabwe), Western Asia (Israel. Palestine) Europe (Netherlands, France) and Western Balkans. Rachel is a former Knowledge Manager at the INCLUDE Secretariat.
