The Women Portfolio of FIRN fosters a collaborative and supportive network for women in Australian finance academia. Our two flagship events are: 

(1) the FIRN Women Annual Conference, an interactive platform for women academics to present research, exchange ideas, and discuss career development, and 

(2) the Women’s Breakfast at the FIRN Annual Conference, which facilitates networking across all member institutions in an informal setting. We are also exploring opportunities to organize regional networking events and welcome local colleagues interested in leading such initiatives to connect with us. Furthermore, we seek to collaborate with international finance academic associations to enhance global engagement, elevate the standing of Australian women academics, and create more learning and research opportunities for women in the field.

Contact: Jing Yu, VP FIRN (Women)
women@firn.org.au


2026 FIRN Women Annual ConferenceTuesday 28 July, 2026

The FIRN Women 2026 Annual Conference will be held in-person on Tuesday 28 July, 2026, with a conference dinner on 27 July, in Sydney. This one-day conference will be co-hosted by the School of Finance, University of Sydney. 

The conference organisers gratefully acknowledge the financial sponsorship from the Academic Female Finance Committee of the American Finance Association (AFFECT). Format of the conference The conference will include a keynote presentation by Professor Kimberley Cornaggia from Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University, as well as presentations of research work by female academics from FIRN institutions. The presentations will be peer-discussed by FIRN members, and a prize will be awarded for the best paper presenter and best discussant. 

The conference is open to all FIRN members, regardless of gender, and attendance is free.

 

Keynote speaker

Professor Kimberley Cornaggia Professor Cornaggia is an expert in corporate finance, credit risk, credit ratings, public finance, and household finance. Her research has been published in leading academic finance journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Management Science, Review of Finance, and Review of Financial Studies.

Prof. Cornaggia is the Finance Department Head and research director of the Center for the Study of Financial Markets at the Smeal College of Business and serves on the boards of the Eastern Finance Association and Western Finance Association. Prior to joining the Smeal College faculty, Prof. Cornaggia served on the faculty at American University, College of William and Mary, New York University, and Indiana University. Her non-academic experience includes analysing asset-backed securities markets and the credit ratings industry for the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice. Enquiries about this event can be directed to: women@firn.org.au

Call for Papers Submission guidelines

We invite female academics at FIRN institutions to submit unpublished papers on all topics of finance for consideration. Selection priority will be given to early career researchers at Level B or C.

Please note that PhD students are not eligible to present at this conference.

  • The purpose of the conference is to provide feedback, therefore submitted papers should not already be under second or more advanced rounds of review at a journal.
  • Accepted applicants will be expected to read all papers on the program in order to facilitate collegial peer review and discussion. All papers will be distributed to the registered conference participants by FIRN before the conference.
  • Being included in the FIRN Women Annual Conference program does not preclude the opportunity of being included in the program of other FIRN-organized meetings/conferences.

Submission Process
Please submit a copy of your paper (with all identifying information including author names, institution affiliations, etc.) to women@firn.org.au.
Submission closing date: 1 June, 2026


Awards
Prizes of A$500 will be awarded to the best paper presentation and to the best discussion at the conference.


Registrations
TBA