Watch Past Events
Missed an event or want to revisit one of the past lectures? This archive features video recordings from past Institute of Political Economy events, including our IPE Visiting Professor lectures and our Socialist Seminar Series. Here you’ll find critical conversations on capitalism, colonialism, climate justice, labour struggles, and more—led by scholars, activists, and organizers from across the globe.
Whether you’re looking to catch up or deepen your engagement, we invite you to explore and share these recordings as part of our ongoing commitment to accessible, public-facing political education.
Re-Organisation of Retrenched Urban Workers in the Rural Landscapes
Sumeet Mhaskar – Winter 2025 Institute of Political Economy Visiting Professor Lecture
As part of the Institute of Political Economy’s 2025 Visiting Professor series, Dr. Sumeet Mhaskar (O.P. Jindal Global University) delivered a compelling lecture on the rural mobilisation of retrenched textile workers in India.
Focusing on the aftermath of industrial closures in Mumbai, Dr. Mhaskar examined how former urban workers—facing job loss and displacement—returned to their villages and sparked a powerful wave of labour organisation. His presentation traced how these ex-millworkers revived union activity, established offices, and sustained political engagement through protests and rallies, even from outside the city.
Drawing on fieldwork from 2008–2009, the talk explored the enduring economic, social, and political impacts of this rural re-organisation. The event offered critical insights into the resilience of working-class movements in the face of deindustrialisation, precarity, and neoliberal restructuring.
You can watch the recorded lecture (Passcode: #ax^3tT9) here.
Colonial Extractivism and Wet’suwet’en Resistance
Tyler McCreary – Fall 2024 Institute of Political Economy Visiting Professor Lecture
On November 22, 2024, the Institute of Political Economy welcomed Dr. Tyler McCreary (Florida State University) for a lecture drawn from his book Indigenous Legalities, Pipeline Viscosities: Colonial Extractivism and Wet’suwet’en Resistance.
In this timely and powerful talk, McCreary examined the politics of pipeline development on unceded Wet’suwet’en territories in Northern British Columbia. He analyzed how colonial governments and corporate actors seek to control Indigenous land claims and legitimize extractive infrastructure through flawed regulatory processes.
McCreary explored how these state mechanisms fail to address fundamental questions of Indigenous jurisdiction and territorial rights, while spotlighting the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s ongoing resistance to colonial containment. By tracing the cyclical tensions between resistance and reconciliation, the lecture offered a compelling analysis of pipeline politics as a site of legal and political contestation between settler law and Indigenous sovereignty.
You can watch Tyler’s lecture here.