I am a critical feminist scholar, educator and author. My interdisciplinary, ethnographic scholarship examines the relationships between capitalism, education, and international development through critical feminist, race, and political economic approaches.

I am the author of The Gender Effect: Capitalism, Feminism, and the Corporate Politics of Development (University of California Press 2018), winner of the National Women’s Studies Association’s Sara A. Whaley Prize.  

My current project, Silicon Futures, examines Silicon Valley’s investments in the intertwined futures of education and work around the world with a focus on venture capitalists and educational technology companies. The Spencer Foundation is funding my new research on venture capital investment in educational technology companies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

My academic writing has also been published in scholarly journals, such as Feminist Studies, Educational Researcher, Race, Ethnicity & Education, Journal of Education Policy, British Journal of Sociology of Education, and International Journal of Education Development.

I have written essays for The New Yorker, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Fast Company, and The Huffington Post based on my research.

I have also appeared on BBC’s Business Daily, NPR’s Marketplace, Wisconsin Public Radio’s Central Time, and Northeast Public Radio’s 51%.

My research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, Spencer Foundation, Fulbright, Fulbright Hays, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation. 

I am an editor of Feminist Studies, the first scholarly journal in the field of gender, feminist, and women’s studies in the U.S. 

I am a University Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge. I was previously a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, Assistant Professor in the School of Education at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Visiting Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Stanford University. I was also postdoctoral researcher at the Haas Institute for a Fair & Inclusive Society (now Othering & Belonging Institute) at University of California, Berkeley. I received my Ph.D. (2012) from the Social and Cultural Studies Program in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley with a Designated Emphasis in Gender, Women, and Sexuality from the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies. I also hold an M.A. in Curriculum & Teaching from Michigan State University, and a B.S. in Sociology and Human and Organizational Development with a minor in African American Studies from Vanderbilt University. Prior to graduate school, I was a high school teacher in the U.S. and Honduras.

To contact me, please write to kjm78@cam.ac.uk or fill out the information below.