Ian Mangenga

Ian Mangenga is a social designer and AI ethics & governance researcher whose work explores how algorithmic systems quietly shape identity, access, and power, with a particular focus on the experiences of African women. She is the founder of Digital Girl Africa, a community incubator advancing AI literacy and digital confidence for women across the continent.

Working across multimedia and design, Ian creates work that makes the invisible architectures of AI tangible. Her practice blends critical inquiry with creative expression, using film, visual storytelling, and spatial thinking to surface the material, political, and emotional contours of emerging technologies. She has consulted for UNICEF South Africa, the World Bank, the Commonwealth Foundation, and CIVICUS, and her contributions to Africa’s digital futures have been recognised by the Mail & Guardian, the Web Foundation, and the Design Futures Lab.

Ian is a Chevening Scholar, a Creative-in-Residence at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the London School of Economics, and is currently completing an MA in AI, Ethics & Society at Birkbeck, University of London, where her research centres on AI governance, data infrastructures, and the cultural and environmental implications of emerging technologies.