Professor, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

Dr Emma Mawdsley is a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge. She is a Human Geographer, with a particular interest in the rising powers and the changing politics of development. She is a member of the Political Ecology group, within the Society, Environment and Development research cluster. Her principal current research interest is the (re-)emerging development cooperation partners (also called 'new' or non-DAC donors, including China, South Africa, Brazil etc), especially India.

She is interested in critically evaluating the challenges and opportunities that accompany the growing role and visibility of these non-DAC development actors. Recent work includes a DFID-funded project looking at how domestic audiences within China, India, Russia, Poland and South Africa perceive their development cooperation activities; and work on Trilateral/Triangular Development Cooperation, as one part of new global development partnerships.

Dr Mawdsley completed her undergraduate degree and PhD here at Cambridge, and went on to work as a Lecturer in the Department of Geography at Durham University, and then Birkbeck College, University of London, before coming back to Cambridge to take up her current post.