Today’s increasing economic inequality goes hand in hand with an uptick in elite power worldwide, raising concerns about eroding democratic governance and diminishing social cohesion.

Although this trend has inspired vital new scholarship, much of this approaches elites through a national lens, and lacks attention to the past and present imperial and (neo)colonial contexts in which they operate. Yet, public debate about the role of oligarchs and kleptocracy, widespread tax evasion and use of offshore finance, and the siphoning of wealth from the Global South through them, all demonstrate the need for greater academic analysis of the transnational – and specifically imperial and (neo)colonial – dimensions of elite formation and power today.

This two-day conference will make a major contribution to this scholarly agenda by bringing together leading international and interdisciplinary scholars to explore the roles and influence of contemporary transnational elites in an increasingly unequal world.

Conference convenors:

Dr Sarah Kunz, University of Essex

Professor Mike Savage, London School of Economics and Political Science

Dr Katie Higgins, University of Oxford

Conference Chairs:

Professor Aaron Reeves, University of Oxford

Dr Pere Ayling, University of Suffolk

Professor Annette Lareau, University of Pennsylvania

Conference Speakers:

Professor Jorge Atria, Universidad Diego Portale, Chile

Dr Parul Bhandari, University of Cambridge

Professor Brooke Harrington, Dartmouth College

Dr Katie Higgins, University of Oxford

Professor Kimberley Hoang, University of Chicago

Dr Sarah Kunz, University of Essex

Professor Shamus Khan, Princeton University

Professor Hanna Kuusela, Tampere University

Professor Maria Luisa Méndez, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Dr Annalena Oppel, London School of Economics and Political Science

Professor John Osburg, University of Rochester

Dr Ujithra Ponniah, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

Professor Mike Savage, London School of Economics and Political Science

Professor Leonard Seabrooke, Copenhagen Business School

Dr Denisse Sepúlveda, Centro de Estudios de Conflicto y Cohesión Socia (COES), Chile

Professor Miguel Serna, Universicad de la República, Uruguay

 Ticket Prices:

In-person: admission £40 per day (£80 for both days).

In-person: concessions £20 per day (£40 for both days).

Online admission: £10 per day (£20 for both days).

Online concessions: £6 per day (£12 for both days).

NB: Please note that on both days, only the morning and first afternoon thematic sessions on will be live-streamed. The afternoon open discussion will be for in-person attendees only.

Book your tickets here

Image credit: Mobutu Sese Seko (L), Donald Trump (C), and Ilham Aliyev (R). Bella Lucy @ Vox