Convocation – June 2026

Convocation – June 2025

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Get to Know Randall Germain: Exploring Political Economy through PECO5000

For prospective students considering a deep dive into the fascinating world of political economy, Dr. Randall Germain offers an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the discipline’s foundational texts and contemporary debates. This Fall 2025, Dr. Germain will teach PECO5000, the cornerstone course in the Political Economy program. As the core course for the Fall portion, this class is where you will get your first impression of the Political Economy program and meet the small cohort you will get to spend the next 2 years with throughout the program. With a rich academic background and a passion for historical and theoretical inquiry, Dr. Germain brings a plethora of expertise and enthusiasm to the classroom.

From History to Global Finance: Dr. Germain’s Academic Journey

Dr. Germain’s academic path has been shaped by an enduring curiosity about how the world works. Beginning his academic career with a B.A. in History and Political Science at the University of Victoria, he completed his studies with a PhD in Political Science from York University. His journey into International Political Economy (IPE) began through an engagement with history, political science, and the history of political thought. After completing his PhD research on the global monetary and financial system, he spent much of his career examining how financial governance is regulated and how theoretical debates in IPE engage with historical processes. Another key area of Dr. Germain’s scholarship focuses on the disciplinary history of International Political Economy: where it comes from, how it has evolved, and how it has become institutionalized in the academy.

Currently, Dr. Germain is completing a book on how the discipline of International Political Economy has engaged with the idea of history, including a chapter that brings key thinkers such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Max Weber into conversation with one another. He has also recently published an article on Karl Polanyi and International Political Economy co-authored with a �Ӱ�ԭ�� PhD student in political science. This active engagement with the field makes Fall 2025 a particularly exciting time for him to teach PECO5000, as he has spent the past six months immersed in the very material students will study.

A Canonical Approach: What to Expect in PECO5000

Dr. Germain’s approach to teaching PECO5000 is rooted in engaging deeply with foundational texts. Unlike many courses that rely heavily on excerpts or secondary material, he prioritizes reading “big chunks” of original works to allow students to grapple with ideas in their full complexity. Students will delve into classics like Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Marx’s Capital, spending two weeks on each text. The course also includes influential thinkers like Weber and Gramsci, along with sections on feminist political economy, post-structural, and post-colonial approaches.

The semester culminates with an examination of a contemporary work in political economy, published within the last few years. This structure not only provides students with a strong grounding in the field’s intellectual traditions but also shows how these traditions continue to inform modern scholarship.

A Collaborative and Challenging Environment

Dr. Germain is particularly excited about the interdisciplinary nature of the Political Economy program and the highly engaged community at the Institute of Political Economy. He emphasizes that students come to the Political Economy program for two reasons: a curiosity about how the world works and a desire to explore how political economy helps explain it.

Embrace your curiosity! The academic achievements of students in this program demonstrate your readiness to engage with these texts. Most of the thinkers we study are approachable and fascinating to explore. Even with Marx, we make the material accessible by breaking it down and incorporating engaging resources like news articles to bring his ideas to life.

Learning and Growing Together

For Dr. Germain, teaching PECO5000 is as much about his own intellectual growth as it is about his students’. “Every time I re-read one of these works, I learn something new,” he says. “I’m excited to see how students bring their own interests and questions to these thinkers, we create the best discussions from our interdisciplinary background and collective grounding.”

By the end of the course, students will have engaged deeply with some of the most foundational texts in political economy, gaining not only theoretical knowledge but also developing critical tools to analyze how the world works. Dr. Germain’s mantra for success? “Embrace your curiosity, and don’t be afraid to dive deep.”

If you’re looking for an intellectually rigorous course that challenges you to think critically about the intersections of history, politics, and economics, Dr. Germain’s PECO5000 promises an enriching and transformative experience.

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We are very pleased and proud that the  Institute Administrator Tabbatha Malouin is one of five individual recipients of the �Ӱ�ԭ�� University Service Excellence Award this year, which was presented at an awards ceremony on February 23. More than 200 �Ӱ�ԭ�� staff were nominated this year, and Tabbatha’s achievement reflects both the depth of her commitment to the Institute and its students and the outstanding regard in which she is held by the Director and those faculty, staff, and students with whom she works.

Excerpt from a nomination:

“Tabbatha is one of the most amazing individuals at �Ӱ�ԭ��, and given how amazing the staff is at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University I do not say this lightly… Tabbatha was a big reason I decided to continue my education at �Ӱ�ԭ��. In the end, one of the core reasons I chose the Department of Political Economy was because I felt that I would be supported and heard as a student. This was because of how involved, responsive, patient, and reliable Tabbatha was during my decision process. She took the time to answer all the questions my anxious brain could throw her way in a prompt, patient, and comprehensive manner. She answered more than a dozen emails and met with me multiple times, many of which took place simply to ease my anxieties and provide support and resources. Other post-graduate programs I applied to did not extend anywhere near this level of involvement. Since then, I have observed that she has continued to uphold this level of commitment to all the students within the Political Economy department. Every department has a person that you can always rely upon, they are essentially the foundation of that little community; Tabbatha is our person and she goes above and beyond…”

Congratulations, Tabbatha — this is greatly deserved!

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The Institute of Political Economy is organizing a Spring Seminar Series to highlight some key issues being discussed in our Work and Labour program.

Seminar 1: Gig Economy (May 11, 2022)
Seminar 2: Waitressing  (May 24, 2022)

Seminar One: Gig Economy

Our first seminar will look at the Gig Economy. This seminar took place on May 11, 2022 via zoom.

Panellists will review and evaluate the ongoing organizing efforts in Ontario to gain employment rights, how the Ford government is threatening those rights and what we can do to support the Gig Workers Bill of Rights.

Kevin Matthews – Moderator
Graduate Diploma in Work and Labour Student
Specialist, Canadian Union of Postal Workers & Work and Labour program

Zoë Abernethy – Panelist
MA Student in Political Economy with Concentration in Work and Labour

Jennifer Scott – Panelist
Gig Worker & President, Gig Workers United

Did you miss our Gig Worker Seminar? You can now watch it here:

Seminar Two: Waitressing 

Our second seminar will look at Taylor Maudlin’s research on why sexual harassment is so prevalent for female wait staff. Kaitlin Matulewicz and Andria Babbington will share their strategies for resistance as workers and organizers trying to counter sexualized violence and precarity in the service industry.

Ania Zbyszewska – Moderator
Assistant Professor, Department of Law and Legal Studies

Taylor Maudlin  – Panelist
MA Student in Women’s and Gender Studies with Graduate Diploma in Work and Labour

Kaitlyn Matulewicz – Panelist
Executive Director, Workers Solidarity Network

Andria Babbington – Panelist
President, Torontoand York Region Labour Council for UNITE-HERE

Did you miss our Waitressing  Seminar? You can now watch it here:

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The Institute of Political Economy (IPE) is delighted to share that its current Director, Dr. Justin Paulson, is one of this year’s recipients of the .

Sponsored by the  and the , this student-nominated award recognizes faculty who “render exceptional service to graduate students as supervisors and research mentors”. Dr. Paulson received this honour alongside seven other exceptional faculty from across �Ӱ�ԭ��, who have had a profound impact on graduate student experience and success.

Dr. Paulson, who is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, has been at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University since 2008. His research, lectures, and writings address questions of critical theory and intellectual history, social change, and political economy. In January 2021, he followed Dr. Cristina Rojas (another recipient of the award) as Director of the Institute of Political Economy. Within the Institute he has taught both PECO 5000: Theories of Political Economy and PECO 6000: Core Concepts in Political Economy, the mandatory core theory courses of the Institute’s flagship MA program and  , respectively. He is a friendly, familiar face to all IPE students—present and future, as those who submitted thoughtful, candid nomination letters in Dr. Paulson’s favour recognized.

Professor Paulson was nominated by 4 �Ӱ�ԭ�� University alumni—three of whom graduated from the Institute’s MA or Collaborative PhD programs (and in one case, both).

Among faculty teaching awards, the Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award is unique in that it does not accept self-nominations.  It recognizes successful and often lasting mentorship, initiated by students who have experienced it. In their nomination letters,  Dr. Paulson’s former students speak to his rigour as an educator, and the supportive guidance and mentorship he provides his students inside and outside the classroom.   As Professor Paulson remarks, “this is the most personally meaningful of �Ӱ�ԭ��’s teaching awards, and I’m honoured to join a long list of previous recipients who teach in or supervise students for the Institute.”

Indeed, Prof. Paulson is only the latest of the Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award winners who is cross-appointed to the Institute.  Eleven of IPE’s faculty from across �Ӱ�ԭ��’s Faculties of Public Affairs and Arts and Social Sciences, including two former IPE Directors, have received this honour since 2010—an impressive showing for the Institute, and an indication of its merit as a one-of-a-kind learning environment.

Dr. Susan Braedley was the last faculty member from the Institute of Political Economy faculty to receive the award in 2019. A cross-appointed faculty member from the Department of Social Work,  that Dr. Braedley “enacts with students as much as with colleagues a practice of intellectual collaboration and sharing, and an ethic of care and rigor”.

Of Paulson’s recent award, Dr. Braedley says she’s not surprised so many faculty from IPE have received this award. “The culture of the Institute is one of ensuring we encourage, challenge, and support each other,” she says. “For me, teaching/learning relationships are intrinsically important—they are the foundation for a vibrant, politically engaged intellectual community. For the amazing students who nominate us, I expect it is the same.”

Dr. Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan, who is cross-appointed with The Department of Sociology and Anthropology, was presented the Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award in 2018, only a few years after arriving to �Ӱ�ԭ�� University in 2012, and the Institute shortly thereafter. She echoes Dr. Braedley, citing its strong culture of mentorship: “This award reflects what we collectively value, both as students and as faculty members.”

Past recipients of the Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award from the Institute of Political Economy are as follows:

• Susan Braedley, Social Work (2019)
• Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan, Sociology & Anthropology (2018)
• Irena Knezevic, Communication Studies (2017)
• Dwayne Winseck, Communication Studies (2016)
• Janet Siltanen, Sociology (2016)
• Patricia Ballamingie, Geography & Environmental Studies (2015)
• Hans-Martin Jaeger, Political Science (2015)
• Cristina Rojas, Political Science, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (2014)
• Aaron Doyle, Sociology & Anthropology, the Institute of Criminology & Criminal Justice (2012)
• Sheryl Hamilton, School of Journalism & Communication (2010)

Prof. Paulson follows in the footsteps of these faculty—all of whom, by their dedication to student success, contribute to the supportive intellectually rigorous culture of the Institute.

“I was honoured and humbled by the nominations; but I would also want to highlight how much of graduate mentorship is a two-way street, in that I’m always learning so much from my brilliant students,” Paulson says. “It is an honour and a privilege to guide students through their research, and is far and away the most rewarding part of my job, leading in some cases to years-long friendships and collaborations.”

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Congratulations to Justin Paulson on receiving a Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award!

Dr. Paulson is currently the Director of the Institute of Political Economy and a Professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department. Dr. Paulson was one of eight faculty members  to receive this recognition.  The Faculty Graduate Mentoring Awards are sponsored by the Faculty of Graduate and postdoctoral Affairs and the Office of the Vice-president (Research and International). These awards recognize faculty who render exceptional service to graduate students as supervisors and research mentors.  Nominations for these awards come directly from students.  Since the inception of these awards in 2010, we have had 11 of our cross-appointed faculty members receive this award.  Past winners include:  Patricia Ballamingie, Susan Braedley, Marie-Eve Carrier-Moisan, Irena Knezevic, Dwayne Winseck, Cristina Rojas, Sheryl Hamilton, Hans-Martin Jaeger, Janet Siltanen and Aaron Doyle.

For more information on the other 2021 – 2022 winners and past recipients, please go to the full post on the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs .

Below are some edited quotes taken from their nominators’ letters for Justin Paulson.

• I truly believe I would not have been able to graduate without his ongoing support. Justin is a fantastic educator and truly the best of what �Ӱ�ԭ�� has to offer!”
• “For years after my graduate and postgraduate studies, I asked Justin for reference letters, and wherever I was, he never failed me. I live and work abroad now, but whenever I think of visiting Ottawa, Justin is at the top of my list to contact.”
• “Paulson is a thoughtful professor who really cares about his lectures and seminars and as a graduate mentor is heavily invested in the success of his students.”
• “His support was key for me to overcome the multiple doubts that I experienced after I completed my dissertation and felt like I would never be able to secure a permanent position in a Canadian University. The labour market for tenure track positions is very tight. He always recalled how much he trusted me and that gave me the confidence and the strength to continue doing what is needed to secure employment as a professor at Athabasca University.”

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The institute of Political Economy is pleased to announce we have 3 visitors for the 2021 – 2022 academic year.

Visiting Fulbright Scholar

September 2021 – August 2022

Herman Mark Schwartz (Mark) is a professor in the Politics department of the University of Virginia. He is best known for work on the evolution of the global economy and the geo-politics of the subprime mortgage crisis, and has over a million published words which even his mother hasn’t read. His current work looks at how changes in corporate strategy and structure towards seeking monopoly profit from intellectual property right deployed in vertically disaggregated production chains has contributed to slower global growth (i.e. ‘secular stagnation’). Like Rick, who came to Casablanca for the waters, Schwartz comes to Ottawa for the mild weather. Rather than opening a café he plans to work with �Ӱ�ԭ�� Professor Randall Germain on why and how the US dollar persists as the dominant global currency, how it resembles (or not) the Pound sterling in the nineteenth century, and what this tells us about global growth and political power.

Visiting Professor
John Peters
September 2021 – December 2021

Dr. John Peters is the Visiting Professor of Political Economy/Work and Labour at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University Fall 2021. Formerly a professor of Labour Studies at Laurentian University, he is now the executive policy director of BlueGreen Ideas – a research and consultancy firm directed to helping Canada’s labour and environmental movements decarbonize the economy. Active in Canada’s labour movement, he was formerly a vice-president of the Sudbury and District Labour Council. Dr. Peters is the author of Jobs with Inequality: Financialization, Post-Democracy, and Labour Market Deregulation in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2022) and an editor of Canadian Labour Policy and Politics: Inequality and Its Alternatives (University of British Columbia Press, 2022).

Visiting Scholar

January 2022 – April 2022

Dr. Duruiz received her PhD in cultural anthropology from Columbia University and she has been the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Northwestern University since 2018.

Dr. Duruiz is a sociocultural anthropologist working with Kurdish migrant farm workers and Syrian refugees in Turkey and in Europe. For her doctoral dissertation, she conducted ethnographic research both in the Kurdish region and at twelve different rural worksites (farms, greenhouses, charcoal production, public landscaping) in western Turkey. She is currently working on her book manuscript, which examines political violence in the Kurdish region and the resulting racialized and regionally divided class formation in Turkey through this migrant labor practice. Her postdoctoral research explores the Syrian experience of migration to Europe with a focus on labor. She is also the creator and the host of the Keyman Podcast and the co-organizer of The Colloquium on Refugees, Migrants and Statelessness at Northwestern University.

Her research and teaching interests include intra-national and transnational migration, ethnicity, race, and racialization, capitalism and the nation-state, racialized labor regimes, political economy of war, coloniality and decoloniality, gender, kinship, psychoanalysis, and affect theory.

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We are  happy to announce our graduates for 2020 – 2021! They have overcome so much during the last year and we would like to take this opportunity to wish them all the best as they embark on the next chapter of their life.

We have created a special page to celebrate our graduates. Be sure to wish them all well using  #�Ӱ�ԭ��Grads2021 on social media.

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Congratulations to our Winter 2021 Graduates!

MA Political Economy

Janna Bryson
Amina Kane
Diana Kolesnik
Kyla Piccin
Rominick Villaneuva
Patricia Wallinger

Collaborative PhD
M. Wesley Petite (Political Science)

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Thank you to everyone who was able to join our event! For those who missed the live lecture and discussion, we happy to announce the full video recording is available for viewing. Follow the prompt to watch the November 18, 2020 lecture delivered by Kevin Skerrett, Fall 2020 Visiting Professor at the Institute of Political Economy. Introduction by Cristina Rojas, Professor in Political Science and former Director of the Institute of Political Economy. Moderated by Stephanie Ross, Director of the School of Labour Studies at McMaster University. Following introductions, a 35 minute talk is followed by 40 minutes of questions from the audience.

Captioning in original English is available, but can be turned off using the CC button at the bottom of the frame: 

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