Andrew Lamas began teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in 1990. His primary appointment is in the School of Arts & Sciences’ Urban Studies Program, where he focuses on the theoretical and practical dimensions, as well as the philosophical and religious bases, of social justice and economic democracy—in the context of urbanization. He also lectures in other schools and programs at Penn, including the School of Social Policy & Practice, where he teaches courses for students pursuing degrees and careers in economic development, community development finance, NGO/non-profit leadership, and related fields. He participates in the Global Gender Group sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program, and he is an Affiliated Faculty of Women's Studies and the Alice Paul Center as well as a Faculty Affiliate of the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center.

He was a founding board member of the Center for Community Self-Help (which, since 1980, has provided $5.57 billion in financing to more than 62,000 small businesses, nonprofits, and homebuyers in North Carolina and California, with a particular focus on low-wealth minorities and women), and he was a co-founder of The Reinvestment Fund -- TRF -- (which provides financing—with more than $480 million of capital under management—for affordable housing and community development in the Greater Philadelphia region). He has also served on the boards of several arts and educational institutions, including Big Small Theater, InterAct Theatre, Miquon School, and Allens Lane Art Center. In the 1980s, he served as the Managing Director of PACE, a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia, PA, which was one of the nation’s leading providers of technical assistance for cooperatives and was the developer (in collaboration with the United Food & Commercial Workers union) of the O&O Supermarkets, the nation’s first network of employee owned and operated supermarkets. For more than twenty years, he has volunteered as the coordinator of a cooperative, feminist, softball league for girls and young women (grades K-12) in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Mount Airy.

In 2007 and 2008, he was on the National Urban Policy Committee of the Presidential Campaign of Barack Obama. He currently serves on the board of the Bread & Roses Community Fund (which has distributed more than $6 million to groups in the Philadelphia area working for access to health care, economic justice, a clean, safe environment, civil and human rights, and peace) and, on a project basis, is a senior consultant with Praxis Consulting Group—-working with employee owned firms, community development financial institutions, and non-profit institutions. He is the website editor of the International Herbert Marcuse Society http://www.MarcuseSociety.org .

Recent conference papers and publications include the following: “From Slavery to Liberation: The Critique of Wage Employment and the Shared Ownership Alternative in Nkrumah’s Africa and Lincoln’s America,” Central Pennsylvania Consortium African American Studies Conference, 2004; “From Black Bottom to Baghdad: Shared Ownership for Addressing Urban Poverty,” Urban Affairs Association Conference, 2004; “Thinking Critically about Microfinance: Lessons for the Middle East,” Middle East Economics Association / American Economics Association Conference, 2005; “Race, Poverty, and Shared Ownership,” in Chester Hartman, ed., Poverty & Race in America: The Emerging Agendas (Lexington Books, 2006). In 2007, with support from the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program at the University of Pennsylvania, he launched a research project on alternative currency in communities across the globe.

He is the recipient of the Katz Award for Teaching Excellence in Urban Studies (2000) and the CGS Distinguished Teaching Award (2005). Professor Lamas received a B.A. in Humanities and Political Science from Davidson College (Phi Beta Kappa), an M.A. in Economic Development from the University of London [SOAS/LSE], and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Courses: URBS 405 (Religion, Social Justice, and Urban Development) [every Spring Term], URBS 452 (Community Economic Development) [every Fall Term], URBS 480 (Liberation and Ownership) [every Fall Term].