Assistant Professor in International Development
Shonali.Banerjee@warwick.ac.uk

Office: PAIS E2.18

Advice and Feedback Hours: Tuesdays 9:00-10:30am via MS Teams (by appointment) and Thursdays 10-11am in PAIS E2.18.

Module Director: Undergraduate Dissertation (PO366) and Politics of International Development (PO203)

Dr Shonali Banerjee is Assistant Professor of International Development in the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS), University of Warwick. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and a guest lecturer at University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Profile

Shonali joined PAIS as Assistant Professor of International Development in 2023. She currently serves as the Department's Deputy Director of External Affairs. She is Module Director of the Undergraduate Dissertation (PO366) and Politics of International Development (PO203).

Prior to joining PAIS, Shonali was the Senior Research Associate at the Cambridge Centre for Strategic Philanthropy. In this role, she led the Centre’s research agenda and academic programming on philanthropy and financialisation in global growth markets, specifically Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Shonali is an expert in philanthropy for development and private sector involvement in international aid. Her previous work focused on the implications of new financial instruments in philanthropy and giving. Prior to academia, Shonali began her career as a development practitioner by spending many years working for international organisations in the United States, Africa, and Southeast Asia. During this time, she specialised in programme management, impact measurement, fundraising, and strategic communications. From 2020-2021, Shonali served as Research Development Officer at Queen Mary University of London, where she worked with faculty across all disciplines to develop proposals for the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

Shonali’s work has been published in academic journals including Third World Quarterly and Development in Practice, and her forthcoming Bristol University Press book with Anne-Meike Fechter (Sussex) and Thabani Mutambasere (Edinburgh) is entitled Horizontal Development: Shifting Power and Privilege in AidLink opens in a new window.

Shonali has also published numerous working papers, industry reports, case studies, and editorials on philanthropy and the financialisation of international development (see 'Publications' tab). She serves as an advisor and consultant to prominent international organisations including the OECD Development Centre, the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI), and the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN). She currently sits on the Advisory Board for the L’Oréal Foundation's Fund for Women.

Shonali holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Sussex, a MSc in Development Studies from SOAS University of London, and a BA in International Affairs and Political Science from The George Washington University.

Teaching and Supervision

Shonali currently directs two modules in PAIS: the Undergraduate Dissertation (PO366) and Politics of International Development (PO203).

Shonali is open to supervising undergraduate/postgraduate dissertations or doctoral candidates focusing on key issues in international development. She particularly welcomes proposals pertaining to the following areas:

• international aid flows
• private sector involvement in international development
• NGOs and international organisations
• philanthropy and corporate social responsibility
• digital technologies in development
• alternatives to traditional aid

Research Interests

Shonali’s research has focused on two rapidly emerging areas of international development: 1) the financialisation of development through private sector influences and 2) the use of new media and technologies by development actors.

She has conducted extensive qualitative and ethnographic fieldwork with a variety of international development actors over the last decade, specifically focusing on NGOs, digital platforms, and philanthropic organisations.

Shonali’s early research focused on the role of digital platforms in NGO fundraising, exploring how the emergence of new technologies shapes the international development space. More recently, her research investigates prominent actors and trends in the global philanthropy space, including extensive research with large private foundations. Shonali also investigates the financialisation of international development through new instruments including impact investing, venture philanthropy, and blended finance.

Broadly, Shonali’s research interests include the following:

• philanthropy, international aid, and NGOs
• financialisation and new market-based models in development (impact investing, blended finance, venture philanthropy)
• private sector influences in development spaces
• new media and technology in development
• global humanitarian and social movements
• decolonising aid and international development