Dr Cynthia M. Kamwengo is an academic and policy analyst whose research focuses on the politics of global development and policy diffusion in the global South. She holds a PhD in Human Geography from Durham University and an MA in International Development from Flinders University. Prior to joining the MAC, Dr Kamwengo was the CDS Postdoctoral Fellow in International Development at the University of Bath where she conducted research on the politics of knowledge production, South-South cooperation and trilateral cooperation in African countries.
Her current research project interrogates the strategies for cementing government trusteeship of the economy and shaping the public’s minds for development that the Zambian government has historically adopted from Commonwealth countries. The study also examines the source and impact of theories that suggest external actors are engaging in economic sabotage and the reasons non-alignment continues to influence how Zambia navigates tensions between Western countries and the East led by China and Russia. Expected outputs from the project include a book that will make conceptual contributions to the academic study of national identity, African agency and multilateralism.