Dr Emma Mawdsley awarded Royal Geographical Society’s Busk Medal

We are delighted to announce that Dr Emma Mawdsley is to be awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s prestigious Busk Medal, “for exceptional engagements with fieldwork, research and knowledge production about the global South”. 

Dr Emma Mawdsley is a geographer specialising in the changing politics of international development. She is a Fellow of Newnham College, Reader in Geography, and Director of the Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies.

Dr Mawdsley’s research focuses on the complexities of development politics, and in particular the development activities of India and other ‘Southern’ countries. She argues against a view of UK aid as a process in which all the benefits flow one way, and reminds us of how nations are interdependent.  “If we’re investing in health, or in climate change [overseas], we in the UK are benefitting, and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that – it depends on how it is done, and making sure it is genuinely inclusive.”

“This is not a backwater of research,” she makes very clear. “How we talk about this, any analysis and research, particularly of China, really matters – for communities, countries, and global geopolitics. One of the very rewarding things about this research is engaging with politicians and policy makers – and the chance for dialogue, and maybe change.”

Discover Dr Mawdsley’s research on our 150th Anniversary website