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Department of Global Development Studies

Caroline Shenaz Hossein

Caroline Shenaz Hossein
Associate Professor
Interim-Director Institute for Inclusive Economies and Sustainable Livelihoods, U of T 2022-2023
Email
caroline.hossein@utoronto.ca
Telephone number
416-936-2012
Building HL 432
Website
Prof. Hossein's website

Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein is Associate Professor of Global Development at the University of Toronto Scarborough and cross-appointed to the graduate program of Political Science at the University of Toronto and Founder of Diverse Solidarity Economies (DISE) Collective. She holds an Ontario Early Researcher Award (2018-2025) and was previously funded by SSHRC (2017-2020). 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, Kerala University’s Journal ‘Polity & Society’ and The Review of Black Political Economy. Hossein is the author of ‘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 forthcoming books are ‘The Banker Ladies’ by the U of Toronto Press and Africana Feminist Political Economy by Cambridge UP.

She has held visiting professorships at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia, University of Guyana, UWI St. Augustine, Trinidad and Jadavpur University, India and spent 2019 sabbatical in Malaysia. She has also held a U.S Fulbright Scholarship at the University of the West Indies, Mona Jamaica and Hossein has given keynote lectures in the US, Ireland, Jamaica, Norway, Sweden, India, the UK and Thailand. Prior to becoming an academic, she worked for 9 years in a number of global non-profits and 8 years as a self-employed consultant to the World Bank Group, UNDP, USAID, IRC, CIDA, IADB, and the Aga Khan Foundation.

Twitter @carolinehossein @AfricanaEconomy
Africana Development & Feminist Political Economy

Education

PhD in Political Science and collaborative degree with Gender Studies, University of Toronto
MPA Cornell University  
LL.B University of Kent at Canterbury, UK  
BA Hons. Saint Mary's University, Halifax 

Teaching Interests

  • Politics of development 
  • Solidarity economies 
  • Feminist economics
  • Cooperatives 
  • Small business 
  • Microfinance and alternatives 
  • Black Social Economy  
  • Political Economy

Research Interests

  • Comparative Politics 
  • Development 
  • Political Economy 
  • Qualitative methodologies 
  • Gender and Development 
  • Intersectionality 
  • Black Feminist Theory

Awards and Grants

  • Canada Research Chair Tier 2 (2022-2027) 
  • 2022 Post Growth Fellow, Post Growth Institute  
  • Ontario Early Researcher Award (2018-2025)  
  • 2021 The SSHRC and Congress ‘Big Thinking’ Lecture 
  • 2021 The IDRC Hopper Lecture, University of Guelph  
  • 2020 Rodney Higgins faculty Award for best scholarly paper 
  • 2020 African Diaspora Special Interest Group’s Emerging Scholar Award from the Comparative and International Education Society 
  • 2018 NCOBPS W.E.B Du Bois Distinguished Book Award  
  • 2018 Agarwal IAFFE Feminist economics Book Award  
  • 2017 Helen Potter Award Association of Social Economics  
  • SSHRC Insight Development (2017-2020) 
  • 2010 US Fulbright Award  

Publications

The Banker Ladies (2021), directed by Haitian-Canadian film maker, Esery Mondesir, open-access documentary, hosted by Films for Action: https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-banker-ladies/Opens an external site in a new window 

Podcast “Banker Ladies and the social economy, Frontiers of Commoning by David Bollier: https://david-bollier.simplecast.com/episodes/caroline-shenaz-hossein-on-black-banker-ladies-and-the-social-economyOpens an external site in a new window 

Three open-access articles: 

  1. C. Hossein and Dahiya, A. 2022. “Recognizing ROSCAs.” Making it Plain. https://make-it-plain.org/2022/06/07/recognizing-roscas-in-canada-as-a-form-of-black-mutual-aid-and-cooperation/ *authored with GDS student 

  1. C. Hossein 2020, “Racialized People, Women and Social Enterprises: Politicized economic solidarity.” Feminist Economics. 
    https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13545701.2020.1821078Opens an external site in a new window 

  1. C. Hossein 2019. “A Black Epistemology for the Social and Solidarity Economy: The Black Social Economy.” Review of Black Political Economy. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0034644619865266