Michael D. Cohen & Shennette Garrett-Scott in Conversation

This conversation brings together historians Michael Cohen (Jewish Studies) and Shennette Garrett-Scott (History/Africana Studies) to examine how enterprise has shaped, and been shaped by, racial, religious, and regional formations in the United States. Moving beyond narrow accounts of business history, the discussion considers how economic practices, financial infrastructures, and communal networks have structured possibilities for belonging, mobility, and power. Cohen’s work on Jewish commercial life and regional transformation generate dynamic questions in conversation with Garrett-Scott’s research on Black financial institutions and the contested meanings of credit, debt, and economic justice. Together, they explore how communities navigate opportunity and constraint, offering new ways to think about enterprise as a cultural, political, and historical force.