Shama Dossa

Shama Dossa is a community development practitioner and academic with over fifteen years of experience working in the Asia-Pacific Region. She is currently Associate Professor and Program Director of the Social Development and Policy Program at Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan. Shama holds a PhD in Adult Education and Community Development from University of Toronto /OISE. She has previously taught at Ryerson University’s, Department of Sociology; Aga Khan University’s Department of Community Health Sciences; and University of Central Asia’s Graduate School of Development located in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. She is particularly interested in the relationship between empowerment theory and practice in community development. The courses she teaches draw on adult learning approaches; the power of performance and the visual; and are primarily designed to have a practical outcome grounded in theory. Her research and teaching interests range from Participatory Approaches to Program Planning and Design and Arts Informed Research to Transnational Feminism, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Gender Based Violence. In her spare time she continues to work with local non-profits in the region and support research initiatives focused on social justice.