Dr Faiza Shaheen
Director (currently on unpaid sabbatical for the election period)

Dr Faiza Shaheen is Director of CLASS, joining in February 2016. She is currently on unpaid sabbatical for the period of the snap 2019 general election.

Prior to this, Faiza was Head of Inequality and Sustainable Development at Save the Children UK, where she led on the development of a new global campaign on inequalities in child outcomes, and Senior Researcher on economic inequality at the New Economics Foundation (NEF).

Faiza is an economist, writer, activist and commentator. She is the author of a range of materials and publications covering the most salient social and economic debates of our times, including inequality, austerity, immigration, youth unemployment and social mobility. Faiza is a regular contributor to debates on popular news programmes including Newsnight and Channel 4 News, and has worked with Channel 4 and the BBC to develop documentaries on inequality.

Faiza was born and raised in East London. She has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from St John’s College, Oxford University, and both an MSc in Research Methods & Statistics and a PhD from the University of Manchester. Her PhD charted the changing geography of poverty between 1971 and 2001 in the UK, and modelled the economic, demographic and societal factors driving these trends. 

In 2017, Faiza was named the Observer Rising Star for Campaigning, nominated as Asian Woman of the Year and included in the Top 100 Influencers on the Left list.

Publications

• A New Vision for Further and Higher Education (22 May 2019)
• Beyond Mobility: From Individual Success to Community Uplift (29 Apr 2019)
• The Great British Regression: Brexit and Inequality (8 Dec 2018)
• Minority Report: Race and Class in post-Brexit Britain (21 Mar 2017)

Blogs

• CLASS Panel Verdict on Brexit Commons Vote (16 Jan 2019)
• Public Support Capping Pay Ratios To Curb Fat Cats (4 Jan 2019)
• Brexit Has Forgotten About People (28 Nov 2018)
• The Tories’ Brexit Disaster Is Distracting Us From The Most Pressing Issues Of Our Time (25 Jul 2018)
• Introducing the Progressive Economy Forum (18 May 2018)
• We Need A Feminist Economy (6 Feb 2018)
• Three Hopes for 2018 (3 Jan 2018)
• Labour Market Realities: Racism in the Workplace (18 Oct 2017)
• CLASS on Class: Our New Podcast (11 Oct 2017)
• CLASS on Class Episode 3: How Does Class Affect Our Politics? (5 Oct 2017)
• Forget the Delivery - May’s Policies Are Weak and Wobbly (4 Oct 2017)
• CLASS on Class Episode 2: How Does Class Still Shape Our Lives? (27 Sep 2017)
• CLASS on Class: Our New Podcast (20 Sep 2017)
• The Financial Crisis: What’s Changed Since August 2007? (9 Aug 2017)
• Beyond Fire Regulations: Housing and Inequality After Grenfell (6 Jul 2017)
• “Like Trying to Unscramble Scrambled Eggs”: Why A Year On From Brexit, We’re Still Clueless (22 Jun 2017)
• The Grenfell Tower Fire: Why it Means Everything Must Change (17 Jun 2017)
• The CLASS Take: The Conservative Workers’ Rights Proposals (15 May 2017)
• CLASS Ideas: Stopping Our Homes Becoming Their Investments (10 May 2017)
• With What’s at Stake, We Can’t Afford Election Fatigue (19 Apr 2017)
• Brexit Deals Must Be Forward Thinking - Not Just Damage Control (28 Mar 2017)
• How Helpful is the Term ‘White Working Class’? (21 Mar 2017)
• Spring Budget 2017: Dr Faiza Shaheen Reacts (8 Mar 2017)
• Gender Equality Must Be at the Heart of the Budget (8 Mar 2017)
• Don’t Be Fooled - The Economy Isn’t Working For Everyone (6 Mar 2017)
• Labour Market Realities: February 2017 (15 Feb 2017)
• Brexit White Paper: The Elephant in the Room (2 Feb 2017)
• Mayism and Trumponomics – A New Economic Order? (26 Jan 2017)
• The 2016 Equality Fallout (15 Dec 2016)
• UK Immigration: It’s Not Numbers But Narrative That Matters (1 Dec 2016)
• A Dummies’ Guide to Tackling Inequality (24 Nov 2016)
• The 2016 Autumn Statement: Tackling Inequality, or Business as Usual? (22 Nov 2016)
• Why Care About Having a Black Prime Minister? (13 Nov 2016)
• Class Conference 2016: Where Do We Go from Here? (11 Nov 2016)
• Britain at a crossroads (4 Nov 2016)
• Five conclusions from the Conservative Party Conference (5 Oct 2016)
• Why are grammar schools on the agenda? (14 Sep 2016)
• The rise of zero hour contracts and what Sports Direct can teach us (9 Sep 2016)
• Video | Dr Faiza Shaheen on Sports Direct and zero hour contracts (7 Sep 2016)
• Day 4: Class, privilege and Oxbridge. (23 Aug 2016)
• Day1: Brexit: Implications for young people (18 Aug 2016)
• 4 Reasons Grammar Schools are a Bad Idea (9 Aug 2016)
• Today’s package of measures from Bank of England fails on inequality (4 Aug 2016)
• Theresa May’s brand of inequality (21 Jul 2016)
• Brexit: The new class war? (28 Jun 2016)
• Has the EU benefitted the working class? (1 Jun 2016)
• Queen’s Speech: response (19 May 2016)
• Economic growth slows, and the problem is bigger than the EU Referendum (27 Apr 2016)
• The 2016 Rich List: Another sign that our economy is defunct (24 Apr 2016)
• The Panama Papers reveal deep problems at the heart of our economy (8 Apr 2016)
• The increase to the minimum wage should be welcomed, but the fight against inequality is being lost (1 Apr 2016)
• What can we expect from today’s budget? (16 Mar 2016)
• What are the next battles for gender equality? (8 Mar 2016)
• Looking ahead: what Class did next (25 Feb 2016)