The 2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize is awarded to economics and politics commentator Grace Blakeley for critical analysis of economic systems and neoliberalism capitalism that helps movements take back democratic power for the working-class.
Each year’s prize recipient also delivers the Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture.
We invite you to join us on Tuesday, May 20, 2024 for the Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture at Toronto Metropolitan University, at the Sears Atrium (3rd Floor, George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre), starting at 6pm EDT, followed by a reception with light refreshments.
In January 2016, the Broadbent Institute lost our dear friend and inspiration Professor Ellen Meiksins Wood.
The Institute founded the annual Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize & Lecture to honour Ellen’s legacy as an internationally renowned scholar and to bring her work to new generations of Canadians. At this troubling political moment, Ellen’s belief that democracy means “nothing more nor less than people’s power, or even the power of the common people or the poor” is more relevant than ever.
Ellen Meiksins Wood was one of the left’s foremost theorists on democracy and history, and often promoted the idea that democracy always has to be fought for and secured from below, never benevolently conferred from above. 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.
This event takes place in partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Arts.
Grace Blakeley
2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize Recipient & Lecturer
She/Her
Grace Blakeley is a staff writer at Tribune Magazine, a columnist for Zeteo News, and the author of several books, including ‘Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom‘.
She is the former economics commentator for the New Statesman, and her work has been featured in publications including The Guardian, The Independent, MSNBC News, Jacobin, and Current Affairs. Grace appears frequently in UK and international media, including BBC Question Time, Talk TV‘s Piers Morgan Uncensored, and MTV News.