Director of Research, Cambridge Central Asia Forum; Lecturer in Development Studies; Fellow of Jesus College at University of Cambridge

Dr. Shailaja Fennell is Director of Research at Cambridge Central Asia Forum. She is also a Lecturer in Development Studies, and a Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge.

Since 2004, Dr. Fennell has been researching the linkages between rural development, and environmental and educational strategies in India, China and Central Asia. She specialises in institutional reform, rural development, gender and household dynamics, kinship and ethnicity, and educational provision.

Dr. Fennell served as an international team leader on public-private partnerships in education within the DFID-funded research consortium on educational outcomes, and rural and urban poverty (RECOUP) from 2005-2010. She was also a member of the team commissioned by the EU to bring about the first European Report on Development team (2008-09), titled Overcoming Fragility in Africa: Forging a New Approach Forward. She has been a consultant on inequality and rural development with Oxfam GB (2014-15), and on evidence based policy with the World Bank (2013-15). Currently, she is a co-investigator on TIGR2ESS, a research programme which is concerned with improving crop productivity and water use, and identifying appropriate farming practices for sustainable rural development.

At the University of Cambridge, Dr. Fennell teaches development policy and South Asian studies. She also supervises M.Phil and PhD students.

Her recent publications include The Handbook of BRICS (with P. Anand, F. Comim, and J Weiss) forthcoming (2018), Oxford University Press, Rules Rubrics and Riches: The Interrelations between Legal Reform and International Development(Routledge 2010), Gender Education and Development: Conceptual Frameworks, Engagements and Agendas (Routledge 2008) edited with M. Arnot.

Dr. Fennell received her bachelors, masters, and MPhil in Economics degrees from the University of Delhi. She read for her MPhil and PhD at the University of Cambridge. Her doctoral research was on long-term agricultural trends in India and China.