instance.__class__.__name__import importlib def class_for_name(module_name, class_name): # load the module, will raise ImportError if module cannot be loaded m = importlib.import_module(module_name) # get the class, will raise AttributeError if class cannot be found c = getattr(m, class_name) return c loaded_class = class_for_name('foo.bar', 'Baz')