Dr Karen Lai is Professor of Economic Geography at the Department of Geography, Durham University (UK). Her research expertise includes geographies of money and finance, FinTech, financial infrastructure and digital economies, focusing particularly on issues of financialisation, knowledge networks, and financial centres.
Karen received her Bachelor and Master degrees in Geography from the National University of Singapore, and PhD in Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham (UK). She was previously based at the National University of Singapore and University of British Columbia (Canada).
Her recent research examines how FinTech (financial technology) is shaping everyday financial practice, relationships among financial institutions, technology companies and state actors, and implications of fintech and AI growth on the material dimensions of digital infrastructure. Her current work examines the growth of data centres in Singapore and Southeast Asia to analyse the differentiated roles of data services, the environmental impacts of data centre growth and associated role of green finance in this sector. A previous project examines the business organisation and networks of investment banks and law firms in Asia and their implications for financial centre development and global/regional financial networks.
In terms of service commitments, she is currently Internationationalisation Lead at the Department of Geography at Durham University, responsible for international partnerships and strategies. She is a founding member of the Global Network on Financial Geography (FinGeo). She is co-founding Editor of Finance and Space journal, Editor of Economic Geography, and former Associate Editor for Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. Other journal duties include editorial board/international advisory board of Contemporary Social Science, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Geoforum, Geography Compass (Economic section), Progress in Economic Geography, and the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers) and Fellow of the Regional Studies Association (FeRSA). She holds visiting fellowship positions at Singapore Management University and Beijing Normal University.
Outside of work, she enjoys gardening, crochet, and Chinese calligraphy.
Karen P.Y. Lai 