Bridget Kustin

Research Fellow and Qualitative Lead, The Ownership Project

Bridget is an economic anthropologist (PhD, Johns Hopkins University) whose research, teaching, and professional employment over the past 16 years has focused on inequality and “social justice” in global contexts, particularly regarding race, religion, and financial access in South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, UK, and the US. This includes doctoral research on power structures and forms of exclusion shaping the global Islamic finance sector (including nearly two years of fieldwork with the Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd and the Islamic Development Bank); research analysis for the US government regarding global religious discrimination; and academic research and professional consultancies regarding both financial inclusion for the world’s poorest, as well as family-owned businesses with revenue above USD 1 billion. As a Research Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, Bridget is the Qualitative Research Lead on the Ownership Project, which focuses on large family businesses, and an Early Career Fellow at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. In 2021, Bridget taught Racial Capitalism to the entirety of Oxford Saïd’s MBA class, continues to host Oxford Saïd Executive Education’s ongoing “Intersectionality and Inclusion” webinar series, and is a member of the University of Oxford’s Advisory Group to IDEA (Increasing Diversity in Enterprising Activities), convened through the Enterprising Oxford Initiative. Bridget has lived and worked in Bangladesh, Germany, India, Pakistan, the UK, and the US, and has conducted academic field research in an additional 17 countries. She has held consultancies and fellow positions with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum, and Islamic Relief Worldwide.