BSE survives and thrives through creative logistics and partnerships, small grants, and gifts from alumni and supporters. These gifts help to cover costs like student travel for research and site visits, travel costs for our research collaborators, institutional costs for various events, student research support, and various incidentals. If you would like to contribute to BSE you can click on this link to go to our donation page or to out can mail a check payable to the Department of Anthropology with a notation indicating that it is for BSE to the following address: Boone W. Shear, Department of Anthropology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 240 Hicks Way, Amherst, MA 01003.
“My colleagues and I rely on BSE as a ready and steady hand to carry out collective tasks and offer thought partnerships in addressing thorny challenges.”
–Alex Papali, Director of Regional Economies, Center for Economic Democracy (CED).
“Through BSE I have learned how to engage with my community and larger coalitions to understand what alternatives to capitalism mean to people as they exist right now. I’ve been able to exercise my research, interviewing, coalition building, writing, event planning skills and more.”
–Quinn Kinney class of ‘23
[BSE] students complete projects that have value for the partners, such as developing profiles of various projects or developing an inventory and assessment of the resources to support worker cooperatives in Massachusetts. I have worked with several BSE students who have pursued internships and professional work in solidarity economy fields. Their learning in his courses opened them up to these possibilities. These students have become young leaders and change agents in the field, building postcapitalist futures.
–Penn Loh, Senior Lecturer and Director of Community Practice, Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University
“Building Solidarity Economies (BSE) has been life-changing for me on several fronts. As a graduate student with deep roots in the local community, I’ve often felt like work done at the university is wholly disconnected from the region and its social, political, and economic ecosystem. Although this is not entirely true, it’s clear that in this historical conjuncture, more mutually beneficial, relational work needs to be done. BSE not only does work that supports this ecosystem, it also works to transform the university itself, the relationships of students to the university, and rethinks and reworksthe notion of ‘economy’. Prior to my arrival to UMass as a graduate student, I felt alienated, pessimistic about political change, and grim about my personal economic situation. I feel significantly less hung-up on my own sense of economic precarity, and significantly more possibility about building a world that is mutually supportive and not wholly dependent upon the capitalist labor and commodity markets. Before coming into relationship with BSE, I wasn’t aware that research at the university could be so politically, economically, and ontologically transformative. There is no other place at the university that would allow me to engage in such meaningful work and be so thoroughly transformed in the process.”—Jeff Coyne, Department of Anthropology Graduate Student, ’25 graduation date
“It was such a joy to get to collaborate with the students at BSE. The students helped us answer questions that have been challenging our community land trust for years, and they presented their findings in ways that were tangible, applicable, and incredibly useful on the ground. Some ways BSE has supported our work have included researching funding models for grassroots nonprofits (including offering specific funder recommendations), creating zines that communicate the contents of complex legal agreements in really straightforward ways that help our community understand our Ground Leases, researching different models of multiracial organizing that center Black, brown, and Indigenous power, and researching models for grassroots affordable housing on decommodified land. BSE really pushes beyond the boundaries of what I thought was possible within academia. I feel inspired by the power that we can build when academia works in solidarity with social movements! I’m grateful for the energy, brilliance, creativity and dedication the students brought to the work; every student from BSE I’ve met is an incredible community organizer.”
—Jesse Saffeir, Land in Common Co-Director
“BSE was a turning point in my education, challenging my perception that devoted scholars must be detached from real-world struggles to focus on academics. BSE teaches at the intersection of theory and practice and through this shifts students’ perspectives from being hopeless in our society to understanding that other economies are possible.”
–-Dylan Hatch, class of ‘22
“Building Solidarity Economies (BSE) has been my home for the past two years. The Mutual Aid Project (MAP) is nestled into the BSE assemblage and welcomed me into a joyous, artsy, politically rad collective. Every part of me was accepted for the first time in my life. Surrounded by thoughtful and passionate folks, we delved into readings and ideas we cared about; no grades, no oversight. Meetings were filled with laughter and personal tangents. I found my voice through zine-making, a project I later led due to the deliberate nurturing of my confidence. Within a few years, I watched as our slow, careful crafting of community rapidly expanded throughout the campus. When student encampments spread throughout the country, the climate continued to catastrophize, and the housing crisis deepened, MAP held me. We grieved and gave each other space to process. We read and talked through the intentional structures that produced these effects. We initiated projects to advance the solidarity work and create spaces of connection.” Abby Brooks, class of ’24
“As a board member of the Common Share Food Cooperative, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of projects within the BSE ecosystem. Whether it be working with anthropology students to learn about the governance practices of other worker owned food co-ops or participating in a worker power conference, we as a co-op have been able to both contribute and benefit from the collaborative spaces and social movements that BSE weaves together. It serves as a crucial nexus that needs to be expanded and replicated across our movements”.
–-Monica Garcia, Common Share Food Cooperative Board Member
“Building Solidarity Economies reframed how I think about academia in relation to activism. The class was integrated into an ecosystem of movements, which enabled me to connect with the vast array of community work happening in Massachusetts. I was encouraged to pursue an early interest in community land trusts, which led me to my first job out of college advocating for houseless individuals.”
–-Alex Ganote, class of ‘21
“BSE was the most important experience I had during my time at UMass. Entering the course with just the seed of an idea, I left with an entirely new understanding of the world we perceive. It wasn’t just a class; it was a transformative experience that reshaped the way I think, process information, and envision the possibilities for change. This course is very intentionally assembled with two interconnected sectors. In the classroom, every article and conversation built deeper understandings, demonstrating thecareful and intentional curation of the material curriculum. Outside of the classroom, we built community and engaged with each other to experience the lessons we were learning. This structure of simultaneous learning and experience was an incredibly effective and impactful way to learn. The lessons I’ve learned in BSE will shape the rest of my life, influencing not just what I do but how I approach the world. For anyone seeking a course that goes beyond academics to touch the core of your being, BSE is that experience.”
–Fay Paicos, class of ’24
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