York University Assistant Professor Caroline Shenaz Hossein will deliver a talk on Oct. 22 exploring the theme of informal banks – or money pools – utilized by millions of black people in the Americas.
Titled “The Black Social Economy: Banker Ladies and Money Pools in the Americas,” the event runs from 2:30 to 4:30pm at 626 Kaneff Tower, and is co-sponsored by the Centre for Feminist Research (CFR) and the Harriet Tubman Institute.
The talk examines the use of informal banks (or ROSCAs) and their management by women known as “banker ladies.”
In her talk, Hossein will explain that banker ladies organize money pools as a form of contestation against commercialized banking systems. She will delve further into the topic to look at the deliberate nature of the banker ladies’ work in the social economy, as well as the ways in which women are constructing socially conscious money systems.
Hossein is currently an assistant professor of business and society in the Department of Social Science. She is also a research associate in the CFR and an executive member at the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa & its Diaspora at York University.
Her research investigates the social economy, and economic development in urban communities. To study the subject, she has performed extensive field work in Africa, as well as in the African diaspora in Canada and the Caribbean.
Hossein earned a PhD in political science and gender and women studies at the University of Toronto, an MPA at Cornell University, an LLB at the University of Kent at Canterbury and a BA at Saint Mary’s University.
Previous to joining York University, Hossein was a U.S. Fulbright Fellow at the Caribbean Policy & Research Institute and at the University of West Indies-Mona, Jamaica. Her first book, Politicized Microfinance: Power, Politics and Violence in the Black Americas, is under review with the University of Toronto Press.
Alison Crosby, director of CFR, will introduce Hossein at the event.
This event can be used toward seminar requirements for the Gender, Feminist & Women Studies program.
Light refreshments will be served.
To RSVP, email to juliapyr@yorku.ca.