In January 2016, the Broadbent Institute lost our dear friend and inspiration, Professor Ellen Meiksins Wood.
Ellen Meiksins Wood was one of the left’s foremost theorists on democracy and history, and promoted the idea that democracy always has to be fought for and secured from below, never benevolently conferred from above. For her, in the deepest sense, democracy meant “nothing more nor less than people’s power, or even the power of the common people or the poor.”
Challenging the prevailing logic and assumptions in her field, Ellen’s scholarship emphasized the importance of political processes and class conflict in shaping historical change.
Meiksins Wood authored nine influential books throughout her career, served on the editorial committee of the British journal The New Left Review and was a much-respected member of Britain’s radical left. She was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada in 1996.
In recognition of Ellen’s distinguished legacy of historical scholarship on political thought, the Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize is given annually to an academic, labour activist or writer and recognizes outstanding contributions in political theory, social or economic history, human rights, or sociology.
The $10,000 award is conferred annually to an academic, labour activist or writer who has made an outstanding contribution in political theory, social or economic history, human rights, or sociology. It acknowledges Ellen’s legacy of historical scholarship on political thought.
The Awardees are selected by the Ellen Meiksins Prize committee made up of Broadbent Institute Staff, Board Members and Fellows, for work that is emblematic of Ellen’s two-fold belief that democracy is always fought for and secured from below, not conferred from above; and, that the egalitarian values of democracy are in ongoing conflict with the unequal outcomes of capitalism.
Each year’s recipient also delivers the Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture, held in-person in May at Toronto Metropolitan Metropolitan University since 2023.
