The Banker Ladies and the Power of the Informal

Monday, November 17, 2025 from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm

• In-person event
• A602, Loeb Building, Carleton University
• 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6

• Contact
• Anne Farquharson, anne.farquharson@carleton.ca, 520-2777

Join us for this speaker series event with Dr Caroline Shenaz Hossein, Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor of Global Development and Political Science, University of Toronto Scarborough. This lecture draws on empirical work that involves interviews with hundreds of Black women in the Caribbean, Canada as well as in Ghana and Ethiopia of her recently published book, The Banker Ladies. Radical Black feminist co-operators engage in globalizing solidarity economies through a specific form of mutual aid – formally referred to as Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs)–to meet livelihood needs. These women call themselves the Banker Ladies, and the ROSCAs they run are rooted in equity, collectivity and self-help to fight against erasure and exclusion.