International Political Economy and Ecology Summer School

Every year since 1991, York University has hosted the International Political Economy and Ecology (IPEE) Summer School organized by the Graduate Programs in Environmental Studies, Geography (Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change) and Politics (Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies). Professor Leo Panitch of the Department of Politics, who passed away in late 2020, was among the founders of the IPEE Summer School, an event that presents a unique interdisciplinary opportunity for graduate students at York – but also for students and activists across Canada and beyond – to investigate a salient issue within the field of political economy and ecology.

Politics, Ethics, More-Than-Human Methodologies

Guest Instructor:
Professor Juanita Sundberg, Department of Geography, The University of British Columbia

Course Director:
Professor Carlota McAllister, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University

This course addresses the politics and ethics of more-than-human methodologies, which are employed to disrupt anthropocentric ontologies and epistemologies by attending to the constellation of beings and entities involved in world-making. In particular, the course will identify risks that arise when ignoring or downplaying the racial hierarchies that constitute ontological divisions between humans, not-quite-humans, and nonhumans. Our ultimate objective is to develop self-reflexive and analytical skills that work to expose the seemingly innocuous, yet nefarious ways racial thinking informs contemporary hierarchies of being and worth.

Dr. Juanita Sunberg’s research brings the sensibilities of ethnography and the insights of feminist political ecology to bear on the politics of nature. Her work fosters conversations between more-than-human geographies, critical Indigenous studies, and critical theory of race and ableism to address environmental crises in settler colonial societies in the Americas. Dr. Sundberg is working on a book manuscript entitles Cat Fights on the Río & Diabolic Caminos in the Desert: the nature of geopolitics in the United States-Mexico borderlands.

The IPEE Summer School invites applications from graduate students and other interested individuals.

Application procedures for the IPEE Summer School vary, depending on whether or not you intend to take the course for academic credit.

The deadline to apply is April 30, 2024.

Application Procedures

1. Students intending to take the Summer School for academic credit.
The academic credit value for the IPEE Summer School is 3.0 credits.

1.1 Ontario Graduate Students, including York University Graduate Students

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Non-York students must file an Ontario Visiting Graduate Student Application form (available from your home university) and send it to gradgeog@yorku.ca.

1.2 Graduate Students from Outside Ontario (Canadian and International)

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Graduate students from outside Ontario should discuss with their own Graduate Program whether they must register for formal credit at York to receive credit at their own university. Should you be admitted to the Summer School, you will need to register for formal credit as a Special student and send both your undergraduate and graduate official transcripts to the Office of Admissions at York University).

2. Students who are not seeking academic credit for the Summer School

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Should you be admitted to the Summer School, you must fill out a registration form which will be provided to you at a later date.
Fees: For all students who are not seeking academic credit the fee for the Summer School is CDN $600 (payable to York University at the time of enrolment).

Admission Procedures

The number of participants in the course will be limited to 30. Places are reserved for York Students from the sponsoring graduate programs in Political Science (LAPS), Geography, and Environmental Studies (EUC), but it does not guarantee admission.

Course Information

The dates of the course are:

May 21 to May 31 (11:00 am to 2:00 pm. EST time)
Ross South 638 (Verney Room)

A list of required readings and details of written assignments will be available before the class begins.

For more information, please contact gradgeog@yorku.ca.

Year	Guest Speaker(s)	Theme
1991	Eric Helleiner	Global Finance and the Emerging World Order
1992	Robert Boyer	Post-Fordism
1993	Saskia Sassen	Global Cities
1994	Elmar Altvatar	Economy + Ecology
1995	Vandana Shiva	Sustainability in a Turbulent World
1996	Alain Lipietz	The Planner After Fordism: Ecology, Democracy, Internationalism
1997	Hilary Wainwright Diane Elson	After the New Right: New Lefts North and South
1998	Warren Magnusson	Social Movements and the Global City
1999	Mike Davis	The Political Economy of Disaster: From Victorian Famines to Postmodern Apocalypses
2000	Peter Marcuse	Globalizing Cities/Partitioned Worlds
2001	Patrick Bond	Challenging Capitalist Globalizations: Targets, Opportunities, Contradictions
2002	Tony Clarke	Blue Gold: Unpacking the Political Ecology of the Emerging Global Water Crisis
2003	Dick Bryan	Global Capital and National Identity
2004	Eric Swyngedouw	Delightful Perversions of Glocalization: Nature, Space and Scale
2005	Alex Demirovic Joel Kovel Joan Martinez-Allier Ariel Salleh	Ecology, Imperialism and the Contradictions of Capitalism
2006	Aijaz Ahmed	Imperialism of Our Time
2007	Alfredo Saad-Filho	Development under Neoliberalism: Value, Money, Accumulation, Alternatives
2008	Gustavo Esteva	Beyond development and Globalization: Autonomous Movements, Indigenous Knowledges and Food Sovereignty in Latin America
2009	Ronald Labonte Rene Loewenson Ted Schrecker	Social Injustice is Killing People: the Political Economy of Health
2010	Nik Theodore	Labour Markets Under Late Neoliberalism: Restructuring, Regulations and Resistance
2011	Adam Harmes	New Constitutionalism and Global Economy
2012	Adam Hanieh	Political Economy of the Arab Spring: Crisis, Capitalism and Revolt
2013	Nik Heynen	Radical Food and Hunger Politics in the City
2014	Jamie Gough	Localism in a Neoliberal World: How Do Right, Centre and Left Use the Local Scale?
2015	Don Mitchell	Mean Street: Class Struggle, Capital Circulation and Public Space
2016	Glen Coulthard	Resurgencies: Settler-Colonialism and Radical Indigenous Politics
2017	Nancy Peluso	Violent Political Ecologies: Resources, Labour, Transformation
2018	——	(CUPE strike)
2019	Susanne Bergeron	Thinking Neoliberal Development Otherwise
2020	——	Cancelled due to COVID-19
2021	Robin D. G. Kelly	Freedom Dreams: Approaching the Transnational Political Economy of Race
2022	Libby Porter	On Land: Property, Place and Belonging under Settler-Colonial Urbanism
2023	David McNally	Racial Capitalism: From Slavery to Trumpism
2024	Juanita Sundberg	Politics, Ethics, More-Than-Human Methodologies

Learn More

The Graduate Program in Political Science at York is an exciting environment to pursue innovative, socially engaging, career-ready education. Contact our Graduate Program Assistant to learn more.

How to Apply