Dr Arabella Fraser joined the Open University as Senior Lecturer in Global Development in March 2022. Prior to this, she held positions as Assistant Professor in Geography at the University of Nottingham, Lecturer in International Development at the Open University and Research Associate in Geography at Kings College London. She holds a PhD in International Development (London School of Economics), MSc in the Politics of Development (London School of Economics) and BA Hons Social and Political Sciences (University of Cambridge).

Before joining academia, Arabella worked as a Research Advisor for Oxfam Great Britain, Advisor for UNDP (Rwanda) and Researcher at the Centre for Family and Social Research, Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, Venezuela. She has continued to work across academic, policy and practice research through projects for the Overseas Development Institute, World Bank, UN-Habitat and International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Arabella is a social and political scientist broadly interested in the relationship between climate and development, in particular the institutionalities of this relationship in urban areas of the Global South. She currently draws on a broad range of theory from urban studies, development studies, science and technology studies and political ecology to explore this in the context of two under-studied issues: the implications of innovation in urban adaptation finance mechanisms and the relationship between urban violence and climate change.