Dr Charlotte Cross

Professional biography

I joined The Open University in 2016. Prior to this I lectured in International Relations and Politics at the University of Northampton. I have a BA in History and Politics, an MSc in African Studies, and a PhD in Development Studies. 

I am Head of Discipline for Development. 

Research interests

My research concerns politics, security and development, with a particular focus on East Africa. I am interested in the role of 'informal' institutions in local governance, the politics of development, and the policing of political and economic change. 

Much of my work has focused on policing in Tanzania. My PhD explored community policing reforms in urban Tanzania in the context of histories of sungusungu vigilantism, Ujamaa socialism, and 'participatory' international development interventions. More recently I investigated connections between increased digital connectivity and security in the daily lives of residents of urban Tanzania, considering how users of mobile phones and the internet experience and understand the security implications of new technologies, and how security providers construct and act upon narratives of cyber security and cybercrime as part of broader processes of social and political ordering. 

In all of my work I am interested in how ideas drawn from or about the past are repurposed by different actors as part of the pursuit of development. My recent co-edited book, Critical Approaches to Heritage for Development, considers diverse articulations of the role of heritage in development, and critically explores the implications of attempts to instrumentalise the past for 'progress'. 

I am also working with colleagues in Kenya, India and Tanzania to explore Innovation for Cancer Care in Africa. We are investigating how linking innovation in the industrial and health sectors might improve access to cancer care in Kenya and Tanzania. Our work has been published in this open access book, Cancer Care in Pandemic Times: Building Inclusive Local Health Security in Africa and India.

Teaching and supervision

I worked with colleagues to develop the MSc Global Development and I now chair the dissertation module, DD872 Researching Global Development. I am also involved in production of new undergraduate curriculum in Development Studies, including D229 Introducing Global Development: Poverty, Inequality, Sustainability, which launched in 2024. 

I am keen to discuss potential PhD projects in areas including: security and development; policing in the Global South; 'non-state' institutions in processes of development; heritage, history and development; governance and the politics of development; Tanzanian politics and history. 

Current supervision 

• Jennifer Horne - Gender based violence in contexts of extreme weather events: a climate justice approach
• Celia Bartlett - Gendered political consumerism: a case study of a Fairtrade Community in the United Kingdom
• Francesca Masciaga - Chinese non-profit engagement in wildlife conservation in Kenya: New dynamics in China-Africa relations and African conservation?

Previous supervision 

• Anna Colom Miras - Citizenship capabilities and instant messaging in western Kenya: an intersectional approach