Celebrating Our Student Annual Graduate Conference
Each year, the Institute of Political Economy’s Annual Graduate Conference stands as a testament to the intellectual vibrancy, collaborative spirit, and political commitment of our graduate students. Organized by IPE students, this conference is not only a space for critical scholarship and interdisciplinary dialogue, but also a reflection of the collective effort, care, and vision that our student organizers bring to life.
Our student volunteers, panelists, moderators and keynote speakers work has transformed the conference into a dynamic forum for emerging and established voices to challenge, rethink, and reimagine the political, economic, and social foundations of our world.
We are proud to showcase the legacy of these past conferences and celebrate the students whose commitment continues to make this annual event a highlight of the IPE calendar.
25th Annual Graduate Student Conference (2025)
Hyper-Politics and Anxious Identities: Seeking Stability in Volatile Times
March 21, 2025 | Institute of Political Economy (IPE)
Marking its 25th anniversary, this year’s conference explored the intensifying political polarization and identity-driven anxieties shaping today’s social and institutional landscapes. Under the theme “Hyper-Politics and Anxious Identities: Seeking Stability in Volatile Times,” the event brought together scholars and practitioners to examine how rising political turbulence, algorithmic culture, and economic precarity are destabilizing traditional structures of meaning and belonging. Our keynote speaker for this years conference was Dr. Rebecca Schein from the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Carleton University.
Through a range of interdisciplinary panels and critical discussions, participants interrogated the affective, material, and ideological dimensions of contemporary volatility—while also asking: what does stability look like, and for whom?
Once again, the conference was organized entirely by IPE graduate students, whose commitment and creativity continue to cultivate a space for radical thought, engaged scholarship, and transformative conversation.
24th Annual Graduate Student Conference (2024)
Confronting “The Spectre of Displacement”
The 24th Annual Graduate Student Conference brought together scholars, activists, and community members to critically engage with the enduring and emerging forms of displacement shaping our world today. Guided by the theme “Confronting the Spectre of Displacement”, the conference invited participants to interrogate the political, economic, and ecological forces that uproot 
lives, unsettle communities, and reconfigure borders—both material and imagined. The keynote speakers were Maggie Fitzgerald and Ajay Parasram who spoke on their work the pluriverse, offering considerations and starting points for thinking about the materiality of the pluriverse and the ways in which pluriversality expands understandings of political economy.
Drawing inspiration from Arturo Escobar’s call to confront global displacements as structural and spectral, panels explored topics ranging from settler colonialism and climate-induced migration to gentrification, land loss, and economic precarity. The conference served as a generative space for building solidarity, reimagining resistance, and centering voices too often sidelined in dominant policy and academic narratives.
This powerful event was made possible by the dedication and vision of IPE’s graduate student organizers, whose efforts continue to expand the critical reach and impact of the Institute’s scholarly community.
23rd Annual Graduate Student Conference (2023)
(In)Stability
The 2023 IPE Graduate Student Conference invited participants to rethink the concepts of stability and instability through the lens of resistance, political struggle, and revolutionary potential. Under the theme “(In)Stability”, the conference challenged casual understandings of these terms and explored how instability—often framed as a threat—can also be a source of disruption, pressure, and transformation within systems of capitalist crisis. The keynote speaker was Heather Dorries (Department of Geography and Planning and Centre for Indigenous Studies at University of Toronto) whose research focuses on the relationship between urban planning and settler colonialism and examines how Indigenous intellectual traditions – including Indigenous environmental knowledge, legal orders, and cultural production – can serve as the foundation for justice-oriented approaches to planning.
Through rich theoretical and experiential discussions, participants examined how revolutionary action can emerge from instability, while also contending with the limits posed by ecological collapse, economic precarity, and political uncertainty. This year’s theme foregrounded the tensions between enduring instability and the need for stable ground to mobilize radical change, asking: can stability be forged not in spite of instability, but through it?
Organized by a dedicated team of IPE graduate students, the conference continued its tradition of creating space for critical dialogue and community-building across disciplines and movements.