The Baker Institute Student Forum

in conjunction with the

Program in Poverty, Justice and Human Capabilities
Beyond Traditional Borders
and the
Chao Center for Asian Studies
Rice University

cordially invites you to attend a presentation on

Microfinance:
A Critical Examination of Its Role in Development
with

Cristal Montañéz Baylor

Executive Director, Hashoo Foundation USA

Marc J. Epstein, Ph.D.

Distinguished Research Professor of Management,
Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University

Saleha Khumawala, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Accountancy and Taxation, The University of Houston

Diana L. Strassmann, Ph.D.

Founding Editor, Feminist Economics;
Co-founder, International Association for Feminist Economics

moderated by

Elora Shehabuddin, Ph.D.

Associate Director, Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality;
Associate Director, Chao Center for Asian Studies; and
Associate Professor of Humanities and Political Science, Rice University

Thursday, September 16, 2010

5:00 pm

Doré Commons
James A. Baker III Hall, Rice University

Microfinance, the extension of financial services to the poor, has been widely hailed as the "movement
that can put poverty in a museum." Critics, however, deride it as modern usury and argue that it is
profiting off the backs of the destitute. The verdict is still out. Should credit be focused on women?
Does the social pressure of lending tear communities apart? Is there any actual empirical benefit from
microfinance? Pivoting off the words of 2010 Rice University commencement speaker and Nobel Prize
winner Muhammad Yunus, we invite you to join our distinguished panelists for dinner and a spirited
discussion about an idea that could revolutionize the lives of more than two billion people.

Please RSVP by fax to 713.348.5993, by e-mail to bipprsvp@rice.edu or on the

Web at www.bakerinstitute.org/events/microfinance before Friday, September 10.