DrPenelope Muzanenhamo

Dr. Penelope Muzanenhamo is Assistant Professor in Marketing and Society and recipient of the Human Relations Paper of the Year 2023. She served as Chair of the Critical Management Studies Division of the Academy of Management (track role 2022–2027). Penelope is also the Media and Artefacts Review Editor for the journal Organization. Prior to her role as Assistant Professor in Marketing and Society, Penelope served as Assistant Professor in Business in Africa, UCD College of Business.

Penelope's  award-winning interdisciplinary research bridges Marketing, Society and Critical Management Studies. Her research examines market actors whose vulnerability, marginality, and perceived illegitimacy obscure their significance, while demonstrating how their practices nevertheless contribute to shaping, transforming and sustaining markets. This includes her work on Black scholarship, epistemic injustice and the dynamics of what she theorises as ‘bullshit empowerment’.

Her broader record of scholarly recognition includes a nomination for the Carolyn B. Dexter Award by the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Division of the Academy of Management in 2023, and Best Paper awards from the Academy of Management Critical Management Studies Division–Best Paper on Gender, Work and Organization 2021, and Best Critical Management Learning and Education Paper 2020; Academy of Marketing–Best Track Paper Award, 2011; and in 2018, a Plaque from Morgan State University International Symposium ‘Out of (and into) Africa: African Consumer Marketing and Firm Strategies’, for her commitment towards integrating African/Black voices in mainstream Business curricula and research.

Within UCD, Penelope is a Member of both the Africa Advisory Group and the Africa Engagement Strategy Working Group. She is also Africa Lead for the Centre for Business and Society (CeBaS) at UCD College of Business; Executive Co-director for the research theme 'People, Work, Society' within the UCD Earth Institute; and Fellow of the Scaling Business in Africa Initiative, University of Edinburgh, UK. 

Penelope joined UCD College of Business initially as the Proudly Made in Africa (PMIA) Fellow in Business and Development (a position primarily funded by Irish Aid, and co-created by UCD College of Business and the Irish social enterprise, Proudly Made in Africa). As the PMIA Fellow, Penelope's role was to facilitate the integration of Africa into Business curricula. She worked closely with a network of 50 lecturers across Ireland to incorporate content on Africa into 15 Business modules, through designing teaching resources and delivering 90 guest lectures to more than 8200 students over a two-year period. Penelope also co-designed and co-led a number of capacity-building workshops for fellow colleagues across Business Schools in Ireland, with the goal of exploring and identifying approaches for promoting the deeper integration of Africa in Business education. During her term, she also acted as the principal organiser for various international conferences, workshops, and seminars.

Before pursuing an academic career, Penelope worked in the areas of International Project Management, Consultancy and Marketing within both commercial and non-governmental sectors in Zimbabwe, Austria, South Africa and Germany. While working as a Marketing Consultant for a boutique Brand Strategy Firm in Germany, Penelope engaged with companies like Red Bull, Yahoo, Google, Innocent, Siemens, Swarovski, GE and several banks. Penelope also served as a member of the PragueSummerSchools from 2013 to 2018, where she taught a course on Sustainable Development and Africa to students from across the globe.