The prize recipient and lecturer will be announced at the 2026 Progress Summit.
We invite you to join us on Wednesday, April 22 for the 2026 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.
Subscribe to the Broadbent Institute newsletter for the announcement as updates.
The 2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize was 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.
Watch the full lecture recording below and read the full lecture in Perspectives: A Canadian Journal of Political Economy and Social Democracy.
This event takes place in partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Arts.
About the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung
The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung is an internationally operating, progressive nonprofit institution for civic education. Active since 1990, the foundation has been committed to the analysis of social processes and developments worldwide. In cooperation with organizations around the globe, it works on democratic and social participation, empowerment of disadvantaged groups, alternatives for economic and social development, conflict prevention and peaceful conflict resolution. Its international activities aim to provide civic education by means of academic analyses, public programs and projects conducted together with partner institutions. In order to be able to mentor and coordinate these various projects, the foundation has established 20 regional offices and collaborates with hundreds of partner organizations, political bodies, and individuals in more than 80 countries. RLS has been granted special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2013.