Fiona Cumberland

I am a first year PhD student working between human geography and management, jointly supervised by Katie Willis and Yingqin Zheng. My research is situated in the multidisciplinary field of ICT for Development (ICT4D) and explores the rapidly expanding mobile gambling industry in Kenya. The project is titled: “Disempowering Technologies: Innovation, Interests and Impact of Mobile Gambling”. I aim to gather perspectives from the private sector, policymakers and technology users in order to better understand the complex system of interactions that has resulted in the success of this industry, as well as investigating the outcomes for users. Prior to my PhD, I completed the Globalisation, Business and Development MA at the Institute of Development Studies. My PhD is fully sponsored by SeNSS, an ESRC accredited Doctoral Training Partnership. More information about SeNSS can be found here: https://senss-dtp.ac.uk

I am an international strategic communications consultant with eight years’ experience influencing
governments, formulating policy and delivering integrated digital and social media campaigns for
multinational companies, governments, high net worths and NGOs. Additionally, I am an experienced
European Trustee with a global NGO and sit on the advisory board of a UK charity.