Ms Bhumika Billa

I completed my PhD at the Faculty of Law as Cambridge Trust scholar in 2025 and am currently a Research Associate at the Centre for Business Research and the ESRC Digital Futures at Work Research Centre. I read, write, teach, and perform on the broad themes of law, technology, and identity. A Button Poetry Grand Champion (2023), Out-Spoken Prize Finalist (2023), and BBC Words First Finalist (2021), my words on page, stage, film, and soundtracks have travelled across 4 continents and have been awarded and/or published by Ink, Sweat & Tears, Creative Future UK, and London Writers Centre among others. My facilitation practice with Historic Royal Palaces, Amnesty International, and Roundhouse centers themes of human rights, social justice, identity, and heritage. In my academic writing and teaching, I critically explore the role of law in constituting different forms of power, with a specific focus on social identity, nature rights movements, and technological infrastructures. My research has been funded by the Cambridge Trust, British Academy, and the Leverhulme Trust among others.

Past work: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/the-language-of-justice.
Future work: https://media.leverhulme.ac.uk/feature/billa.
Latest Keynote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gYvkou7EQw&list=PLAETnf8yakpItDDzX_SWqT0gAzE8ZwlCX&index=1.

Education:

• PhD in Law, Peterhouse, University of Cambridge (2021-2025)
• LLM, St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge (2019-20)
• BA LLB, Vivekananda School of Law and Legal Studies, GGSIP University (2013-18)

Prizes & Awards:

• Yorke Prize for PhD thesis titled 'Information Theory of Law: Gender and Religion in the Indian Legal System', Cambridge Faculty of Law (2025)
• Gavin C. Reid Prize for the Best Paper by an Early Career Researcher for 'Law as Code: Exploring Information, Communication and Power in Legal Systems', Cambridge Centre for Business Research (2024)
• Kenneth Law Essay Prize, for first-year paper titled ‘Towards an Information Theory of Law’, Peterhouse, University of Cambridge (2022)
• Cambridge University Law Society Gold award for legal pro bono work over an academic year (2022)
• St Edmund’s College Prize, for achieving first class in LL.M. examinations, St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge (2020)
• University Gold Medal for overall first rank in B.A. LL.B. across 8 colleges (~1200 students), Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (2018)

Scholarships & Grants:

• British Academy Early Career Researcher Network (ECRN) Seed Funding (2025-26)
• Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Research Grant (2025-26)
• Cambridge Creative Encounters, Partnership with Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Cambridge (2023)
• Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Trust Cambridge International Scholarship, full-scholarship towards PhD, University of Cambridge (2021-2025)
• Cambridge Trust Scholarship, partial scholarship towards LL.M., University of Cambridge (2019)
• Cornelia Sorabji Law Scholarship, partial scholarship towards BCL, University of Oxford (offered) (2019)

Experience:

• Research Associate, Centre for Business Research, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge (2020-present)
• Glasgow Law Fellow, School of Law, University of Glasgow (2026-27)
• Associate Fellow, ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work, Universities of Sussex and Leeds, (2021-present)
• Researcher, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University (Fall 2022)
• Project Manager, Cambridge Law Faculty Pro Bono Project, University of Cambridge (2021-22)
• General Editor, Cambridge International Law Journal (2019-20)
• Legal Research Fellow, Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi (2018-2019)

Teaching:

• Lecturer, Criminology and Criminal Justice in Context (Law, Sociology, Criminology Tripos), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge (2026-27)
• Associate Lecturer and Course Convenor, Law and Economy (LLM), Kent Law School, University of Kent (2025-26)
• Supervisor, 'Legal Evolution and Game Theory', Law and Economics (BA Land Economy), Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge (2024-present)
• Guest Lecturer, 'Feminist Legal Methodologies', Race, Gender and the Law (LLM), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge (2023-present)
• Workshop Leader, ‘Law, Technology, Society', Economics of Law and Regulation (LLM), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge (2020-23)
• Workshop Leader, ‘Inequality and Law’, Economics of Law and Regulation (LLM), Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge (2020-22)
• Principal Associate and Teaching Assistant, Negotiation Theory (Executive Education), The Negotiation Academy (2017-19)