Faculty Fellowship for Laura Parisi
Dr. Laura Parisi has been awarded a University of Victoria Faculty Research Fellowship through the Centre for Co-operative & Community Based Economy. An Associate Professor with the Department of Women's Studies (cross-appointed with the Department of Political Science), Laura’s research project is titled “Women’s Empowerment, Fair Trade and International Development: A Case Study of the Senanga Basket Co-operative”. The project proposes to assess the impact of the international development aid environment on the long-term viability of the co-operative. It also seeks to analyze the gendered dynamics of the cooperative and how participation in the cooperative may or not contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Finally, this case study provides a unique opportunity to trace the chain of the local consumption (BC, Canada) of a locally (Senanga, Zambia) and co-operatively produced product through the international fair trade system. The case study is based on Laura’s fieldwork in Zambia in May 2013.
The research is part of a larger SSHRC Partnership Development grant project entitled “New International Development Aid Modalities: Identifying New Best Practices for Building Long-Term Sustainability in Human and Gender Rights International Development Organizations.”