I am a Lecturer in Global Urban Development and Hallsworth Research Fellow in the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute. My research sits at the intersection of development studies, urban geography and political economy, and is driven by a commitment to understanding and addressing 21st century global urban inequalities.

The primary focus of my research is on cities in the global South, with a particular specialism in urban Africa. My work is informed by an understanding of development that disrupts traditional geographical binaries, and as such also draws on insights from cities in the global North. This research explores the socio-spatial outcomes of urban processes of commodification, dispossession and enclosure, and examines how city dwellers respond to, participate in and contest these processes.

To date, this research has been funded by the British Academy with Leverhulme, the Feminist Review Trust and the ESRC with the Universities of Leeds and Manchester, and has been published in journals such as Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.

Prior to my appointment as a Hallsworth Research Fellow, I undertook roles as a Lecturer in International Development at the University of Manchester and a Teaching Associate in International Development at the University of Sheffield.

My non-academic writing includes articles for The Guardian, Novara and Tribune. 

My research interests include:

• The politics of urban development
• Urban capitalism
• Urban poverty and inequalities
• The urban commons
• Urban housing, land and real estate
• Urban social movements
• Comparative urbanism

I am interested in supervising PhD projects in the following areas:

• The politics of urban development
• Urban capitalism
• Urban poverty and inequalities
• The urban commons
• Urban housing, land and real estate
• Urban social movements
• Comparative urbanism