I am an economic geographer studying work, employment and the social regulation of labor markets using co-produced, qualitative methods.
The goal of my research is to advance understanding of how labor markets work from the perspective of marginalized, informal workers. Themes of particular interest include value, social reproduction, capitalist variegation and the political economy of data infrastructures influencing economic policy.
Being Dignified: Exploitation, Agency, Domestic Work
My doctoral thesis bridges contemporary economic geographies of variegated capitalism with the study of paid domestic work in urban Nepal, one of the most ubiquitous yet hidden labour markets in South Asia. Examining capitalist evolution from the inside out, as opposed to from the top down, this research creates a framework for conceptualizing the relational and place-based employment processes producing the future of work within informal and less-visible labour markets.
Drawing on 9-months of ethnographic fieldwork with 20 domestic workers, three overlooked domains of exploitation and agency emerge as critical to understanding how capitalist work and contemporary labor markets evolve in the Nepali context, including: relationality (e.g. intimacy and family position), temporality (e.g. forms of qualitative time beyond linear, clock-time) and in-kind wages (e.g. receiving housing and education instead of a cash wage).
Publications and Methods
My published and ongoing work uses inclusive, qualitative methods to examine the labour process among workers frequently excluded from dominant labor market knowledge. I have conducted research with domestic workers, rural entrepreneurs, young mothers, and waste pickers across Nepal (2020–25), Indonesia (2020–21), and Bangladesh (2019).
These projects include collaborations with the Asian Development Bank, Restless Development, E-SheBee Social Enterprise and the University of Edinburgh.
Methods I use include work-life histories, diary methods, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and creative and visual methods.
2025
“Domestic Work and Unfreedom: Theorizing Capitalist Variegation within South Asia” – for Progress in Human Geography
“Being Dignified: Understanding Socio-Spatial Exploitation and Agency in Nepali Domestic Work” – PhD Thesis Embargoed in the University of Cambridge Online Library. Request Access.
“Entrepreneurship As Struggle: The Crises and Politics of Entrepreneurial Becomings” in Economic Anthropology with Huang, J.Q., Bassett, J., Chisholm, P. and Geary, H. Open Access.
2024
“Caring Through Translation: A Dialogue on Ethics and Inclusivity in Cross Language Research” in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods (Peer Reviewed) with Baniya, A. Open Access.
“Mortgaged futures: fractured livelihoods and youth debts during COVID-19 – 2024” in Journal of Youth Studies (Peer Reviewed) with Barford, A., McCarthy, G., Osborne, H., Pratiwi, A. M., Pradhan, K., & Shrestha, S. Open Access.
2023
“Disaster Diaries: Qualitative Research at a Distance” in International Journal of Qualitative Methods (Peer Reviewed) with Barford, A., Osborne, H., Pradhan, K., Proefke, R., Shrestha, S. and Pratiwi, A.M. Open Access.
Policy and Public Engagement
Short Film: “Didilai Didiko Sandesh”
This is a 4-minute short film co-produced and co-written with domestic workers in urban Nepal during my doctoral fieldwork in 2024. The film emerged from women’s desire to share their ‘hidden’ experiences more widely with domestic workers across South Asia, leveraging frequent social media use in the region.
The film was selected for the 2024 Cambridge Creative Encounters cohort and 2024 Film Geographies Screening at the American Association of Geographers. Today, it has over 900,000 views.
Watch on Facebook here.
Artist Collaboration: “Domestic Work is Decent Work” with Dami Arts
Four canvas illustrations co-developed with Dami Arts correspond to key findings of my 2025 doctoral research “Being Dignified: Understanding Socio-Spatial Exploitation and Agency in Nepali Domestic Work.” We are pitching this artwork to galleries in Kathmandu with findings summaries as an additional avenue for public engagement.
Pilot Diary Study: “Youth in a time of crisis: Livelihood diaries from Nepal and Indonesia during COVID-19”
This study pioneered a remote and youth-led diary study understanding employment exclusion during a time of COVID-19 mobility restrictions. The report summarizes key policy recommendations from over 1400 diary entries by young workers in Indonesia and Nepal.
Read the report here.
Political Economies of Labor Market Data: Flattened Rhythms under Digital Governance
My next project examines labor market data infrastructures, focusing on how local labor processes are abstracted and translated into standardized classifications. I critique how digital data practices flatten workers’ lived experiences, determine welfare participation and shape governance outcomes in the context of political transition in Nepal and the UK.
Teaching
Geographies of Employment
This course examines labor relationships in the 21st century. It analyzes labor market inequality across the Global North and South through labor market institutions, welfare and workfare states and the decent work agenda.
Development Policies and Practices
This course examines approaches to development from post-WWII to the present day, critiquing the concept of ‘development’ and balancing political economy approaches with ethnographic accounts of wellbeing, value and diverse economies research.
Co-Producing Knowledge for Inclusivity
This course explores what it means for qualitative research to be developed in equitable and inclusive ways, particularly with socio-economically marginalized interlocutors. It is grounded in feminist theories of care, epistemic justice, and co-production.
Grace E. Mueller 