Ayesha Banu is an Associate Professor and former Chair of the Department of Women and Gender Studies, at Dhaka University. She received her Ph.D. from Dhaka University in 2015 and completed her first Master's in Sociology from Dhaka University in 1989. She was awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship and pursued her second Master's in Gender and Development at IDS, Sussex during 1993-1994. Her areas of interest are women’s movements, feminist theory, poverty, and issues related to gender and development.