Caroline Shenaz Hossein, an associate professor in York University's business and society department, has won the inaugural Suraj Mal and Shyama Devi Agarwal Book Prize for Politicized Microfinance: Money, Power and Violence in the Black Americas.

The $1,000 U.S. prize ($1,339.40 Cdn) is awarded biennially to a book in the field of feminist economics by the International Association for Feminist Economics. The organization's 2019 conference will be held at Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland.

Hossein's book explores microbanking in Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad, revealing how social, historical and political prejudices have hampered its success as a tool of financial development for low-income individuals and communities.

"This innovative book is a pioneering analysis of how microfinance is shaped by deeply racialized and gendered structures of class power," said the International Association for Feminist Economics in a press release.

"This is a stimulating book that raises important issues for the microfinance industry not only in the Caribbean but also globally. It is one of the few books on gender and development that explores the role of intersecting inequalities, deploying an approach that should be more widely adopted."