Introducing Ujima’s 2024-25 Black Feminist Economics Fellow, Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein

July 11, 2024 — Boston, MA ● Boston Ujima Project, a leading Black-led organization building a cooperative business, arts, and investment ecosystem, is excited to announce the selection of Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein as its Black Feminist Economics Fellow. The Black Feminist Economics Fellow is Ujima’s signature research initiative and a core element of Ujima’s ongoing commitment to broadening the scope and practices of both formal and informal economic development.

Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein is a Canada Research Chair of Africana Development and Feminist Political Economy and Associate Professor of Global Development at the University of Toronto Scarborough and she is cross appointed to the graduate program of Political Science at the University of Toronto. She is founder and member of the Diverse Solidarity Economies (DISE) Collective working to amplify cooperativism and membership institutions. Hossein also holds an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario government since 2018.

In 2024 Hossein was named one of Canada's most accomplished Black Women by 100abc Women. Hossein is board member to the International Association of Feminist Economics, advisor to Oxford University Press, editorial board member to the U.N. Task Force for the Social and Solidarity Economy, advisor to An Economy of our Own and was a recent fellow at The Postgrowth Institute. Hossein is the author of the multi-award winning ‘Politicized Microfinance’ (2016), co-author of ‘Critical Introduction to Business and Society’ (2017); editor of ‘The Black Social Economy’ (2018), co-editor of ‘Community Economies in the Global South’ (2022) and ‘Beyond Racial Capitalism’ (2023) both by Oxford UP. Her new book is ‘The Banker Ladies: Vanguards of Solidarity Economics and Community based banks' (2024) published by the Univ of Toronto Press. 

Prior to becoming an academic, she worked for nine years in several global non-profits and eight years as a self-employed consultant to the World Bank Group, UNDP, USAID, IRC, CIDA, IADB, and the Aga Khan Foundation to name a few.

As the Black Feminist Economics Fellow, Dr. Hossein will focus on interdisciplinary projects that advance her research on mutual aid, self-help associations and Rotating Credit and Savings Associations (ROSCAs). Her work will culminate in an upcoming exhibition with Ujima and a companion book project.

Learn more at www.africanaeconomics.com.