Rate My Professor John Abraham

John Abraham is the Academic Dean and Associate Professor at United College, University of Waterloo. He spent much of his childhood and youth living across four countries on three continents, shaping his interdisciplinary academic path. Abraham holds an undergraduate degree in Religious Studies from the University of Calgary, a Master of Philosophy in Modern South Asian Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Politics and International Relations from Royal Holloway, University of London. He completed two postdoctoral fellowships: one on Community Based Conservation at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the second on Social Innovation at the University of Waterloo's Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience. From 2016 to 2019, he served as Assistant Professor of Global Studies and Social Entrepreneurship at Wilfrid Laurier University. He then joined the International Development Program at United College, where he also works as a Continuing Lecturer in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development and as a Fellow of the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

Abraham's current research takes an interdisciplinary focus, engaging with issues of religion, political economy, environment, social innovation, and decolonization. His recent and forthcoming journal publications address social innovation, the intellectual history of international development, and the global political economy. Key works include "In Search of Dharma: Integral Humanism and the Political Economy of Hindu Nationalism" (South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2019), "Digital Elixir? The Aakash Tablet as a Social Innovation in Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D)" (Social Enterprise Journal, 2021, with Sean Geobey), "The Social Entrepreneur as Global Citizen: A Critical Appraisal of a Theory of Social Change" (in Going Global? Critical Studies on Global Citizenship, Routledge, 2020), and "Epistemic Communities and IMF Policy" (Oxford Handbook of the International Monetary Fund, 2024). Ongoing research projects include a book-length study of the political economy of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in India and a decolonial analysis of the life and work of English activist and clergyman Charles Freer Andrews. Since 2021, he has served as a board member of the Mennonite Central Committee Ontario and the Ontario Council for International Cooperation, and as Faculty Representative on the United College Board of Governors.