YSI Pre-IASS Conference Workshop on Adam Smith
Università del Salento, Lecce – 27th March, 2025
“Towards the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations”
2026 marks the 250th anniversary of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations. Seeking to build on the momentum of Smith’s 2023 tercentenary, this major anniversary invites scholars to revisit his groundbreaking work of political economy. The YSI History of Economic Thought working group will organize a one-day workshop on 27 March 2025 ahead of the International Adam Smith Society (IASS) annual conference in Lecce, Italy (28-30 March 2025). This is an excellent opportunity for young scholars working on Smith to be able to discuss their work in detail with peers and senior Smith scholars.
The workshop’s title “Towards the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations”, deliberately leaves space for a broad range of approaches to re-interpreting Smith’s great work, including, but not limited to:
- The historical significance and legacy of Smith’s political economy
- Explorations of Smith’s ideas in light of today’s socio-economic challenges
- Re-interpreting Smith’s political economy in the context of his wider philosophy
Participants will be asked to pre-circulate some written material two weeks prior to the date of the workshop. This could be a full paper, if available, or shorter draft material (suggested 4000-9000 words). Participants will also need to be registered for the main IASS conference (you can submit your abstract by clicking here). We are aiming to cover costs for travel to and from the conference (including travel from outside Italy), and accommodation for the night before the workshop. We will provide accommodation for the night before and night of the workshop, at least, and for further nights of the conference, if possible. We will not cover conference fees.
Scholars presenting at this workshop and the subsequent conference will be invited to submit their papers for publication in a special issue of the Adam Smith Review marking the 250th anniversary. In addition, up to three workshop participants will be invited to the International Institute of Research of the University of Chicago in Paris to complete their papers following the conference. They will benefit from Faculty support and a workspace, providing the optimal conditions to prepare their papers for publication.
If you are interested in attending the workshop you should:
(i) be a young scholar (masters, PhD, post-doc);
(ii) go to the workshop website page, click the “Apply now” button and fill out the form, including a title and abstract (up to 300 words) for the paper you wish to present, by 15th November (deadline extended).
We will let applicants know the outcome by 31st November.
For further information, click here, or contact any of the workshop organizers:
– Leo Steeds, University of Glasgow, Leo.Steeds@glasgow.ac.uk
– Zack Rauwald, University of Cambridge, jlzr2@cam.ac.uk
– Ivan Sternick, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, ivanprates@cedeplar.ufmg.br
International Adam Smith Society 