
PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU MATCH ALL THESE CRITERIA
BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR ESSAY:
1. The competition is open to all undergraduate students at higher education institutions in
Europe. You must be enrolled in any undergraduate programme at the time of the
conference. You must not already hold a degree beyond the undergraduate level
(e.g. Masters, PhD etc.).
2. All entries must discuss one of the following four topics:
1. The Ecological Boundaries of the Planet
2. The Political Economy of Gender, Race, and Religion
3. Macroeconomic Policy & the Crisis of Global Finance
4. The Future of Automation and Artificial Intelligence
3. Essays should reflect on the key debates within each of these fields. In line with the
critical outlook of the conference, they should consider the development of research in
each topic area as well as its current state. Possible questions to reflect on include:
1. ‘In what ways has the academic approach to the subject changed over the past
years - has there been a shift in paradigms?’
2. ‘What are major debates in the field today and how could they be resolved?’ and
3. ‘What are challenges in each of the fields and how could they be met?’
4. Contributors are invited to go beyond these questions and tackle the subjects in
other critical, creative and out-of-the-box ways. Sometimes paradigms need to be
pushed in order to shift and we encourage you to push them hard!
5. Entries should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words long (excluding bibliography).
6. Entries must be written in English.
7. Only one entry per participant is allowed. Once an essay is submitted, students will not
have the opportunity to revise it. Please carefully check and improve your writing before
submitting the final copy.
8. Plagiarism is taken very seriously in this competition. Make sure to properly reference
your work and hand in a full bibliography. Any standard academic referencing system is
permissible.
9. Essays can only be submitted as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or PDF (.pdf).
10. All entries must be submitted before midnight (GMT) on 15 October 2017.