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Cosponsors
  • Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University
  • Columbia University Seminars
  • Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University
  • Department of Political Science, Columbia University
  • Department of Politics, The New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College
  • Department of History, The New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College

Fascism is a category and concept that has had broad historical analysis. Based on European experience in the twentieth century, historians have reconstructed and analyzed its theoretical foundations, ideological components, and its political expression as a movement, and then as a political regime, that has radically upset constitutional liberal governments, repressed individual liberties (civil and political), and put an end to social conflicts through a systematic work of repression and violent coercion. Militarism, colonialism, and imperial expansion have accompanied the fascistization of some European societies to the point of becoming a fatal threat to international coexistence and peace. The decades between WWI and WWII have been the theater of this anti-liberal and anti-democratic regime; post-WWI economic unrest and the first Great Depression gave fascist movements and governments strong arguments against the moderate liberal governments' incapacity to tackle with social and economic crisis. Fascist regimes, as Ira Katznelson writes in his book Fear Itself (2013), challenged parliamentary systems and constitutional governments with the accusation of being incompetent to deal with radical crises because of their institutional and procedural structures, which relied upon consent, political pluralism, and accountability of political functions. The factual alliance of liberal government with capitalism made Fascist accusation quite successful since fascism nourished itself with a populist ideology that pointed to the “fat cats” of finance as the locusts that razed national well being, and to the myth of peace and liberty, which had meanwhile enervated both political elites and ordinary citizens. A new bold set of ideas and political projects based on nationalism, racism, and attacks against minorities coagulated into an anti-democratic movement that would change the face of Europe and the world in just a few years.

Although fascism as a regime disappeared in the West after World War II, it is undeniable that its ideology did not. In fact, the present economic crisis has the effect of stimulating the birth of new forms of fascist movements in many countries, not only in Europe. Just to mention the most threatening example: on 11 March 2013, the Hungarian parliament approved substantial changes to the constitution that limited civil liberties and the powers of the Constitutional Court.

Contemporary democracies are witnessing a striking paradox: the democratic political system enjoys the support of public opinion and even a universal allure (the same Hungarian reforms were propagandized in the name of defending "Hungarian democracy"), and yet, its existing mechanisms are under pressure and criticism principally as a result of a decline in trust. The growth of Fascist and nationalist movements in Europe and the decline of legitimacy of European Union are correlated phenomena that demand critical attention and analysis. Recent elections for the renewal of the European Parliament marked a turning point in the reappearance of the political right wing as a European phenomenon: xenophobia,ethnocentric nationalism, anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism are the basic components of this new form of cultural fascism.

These are the historical, theoretical, and culture premises that motivate the design of an International Conference on Fascisms across Borders. The conference looks at the constellation of concepts that fascism concocts historically – populism, nationalism, Nazism—and their renewal in neo-fascist movements and ideologies both in their specificity and their historical actualizations across the globe, but specifically in Europe and Latin America.

Made possible with support from the Title VI International NRC at Columbia University.

Locations:

April 1: Heyman Center, Second Floor Common Room

April 2: The New School for Social Research, Wolff Conference Room

Program

time8:30am - 9:30am EDT

Welcome and Opening Remarks

time9:30am - 11:15am EDT

Panel I: Past and Present of Fascism
Chair

Federico Finchelstein

Associate Professor of History

New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College

Postfascism: the Politics of Xenophobia and the Legacy of the Twentieth Century

Enzo Traverso

Professor in the Humanities

Cornell University

Fascism as a mass phenomenon: should we be calling it a "movement?"

Seraphim Seferiades

Associate Professor of Politics

Panteion University of Social and Political Science

Discussant

Turkuler Isiksel

James P. Shenton Assistant Professor of the Core Curriculum

Columbia University

time11:15am - 11:30am EDT

Break I

time11:30am - 1:15pm EDT

Panel II: Old and New Ideological Borders
Chair

Jean Cohen

Nell and Herbert M. Singer Professor of Political Theory and Contemporary Civilization

Columbia University

Contemporary Fascisms and the Limits of Historical Analogies

Kostis Karpozilos

Stavros Niarchos Postdoctoral Fellow

Columbia University

Time Borders and Space Borders: The Italian Intellectuals and Fascist Antisemitism

Michele Battini

Professor at the Department of Civilization Forms of Knowledge and, Scientific Field Contemporary History

University of Pisa

Discussant

Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Professor of Italian, History

New York University

time1:30pm - 2:30pm EDT

Break II

time2:30pm - 4:15pm EDT

Panel III: Within the Fortress of Europe 1
Chair

Nadia Urbinati

Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory and Hellenic Studies

Columbia University

Fascism(s) in Europe's Center and Periphery Through the Crises of the 1970s

Dimitris Kousouris

Postdoctoral Fellow

Institute for Advanced Study Konstanz

The Neonazi Restructuring After 1989

Hubertus Buchstein

Chair, Department of Political Theory and the History of Ideas

Greifswald University

Discussant

Jose Moya

Professor of History

Barnard College

time4:15pm - 4:30pm EDT

Break III

time4:30pm - 6:15pm EDT

Panel IV: Within the Fortress of Europe 2
Chair

Andrew Arato

Dorothy Hart Hirshon Professor in Political and Social Theory

The New School for Social Research

Fascist Branding: Constructing the Spectacle of Ethnos in the Balkans

Kriss Ravetto

Co-Director and Associate Director of Cinema and Technocultural Studies

UC Davis

The Crisis of Liberal Institutions in Mediterranean Europe

Giulia Albanese

Faculty Member

DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE STORICHE, GEOGRAFICHE E DELL'ANTICHITA'

Discussant

Jeremy Varon

Associate Professor of History

New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College

time6:15pm - 7:30pm EDT

Conclusion and Wrap-up

time8:30am - 9:15am EDT

Welcome and Day 2 Opening Remarks

time9:15am - 11:00am EDT

Panel V: The Evolution of Populism in Latin America
Chair

Stathis Gourgouris

Professor of Comparative Literature

Columbia University

Populism and the Politics of the Extraordinary in Latin America

Carlos de la Torre

Director of International Studies Program, Professor of Sociology

University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences

Populism and Redistribution in Latin America: Conceptualizing a Threshold of Acceptance

Juan Bertomeu

Assistant Professor, Department of Law

ITAM School of Law, Mexico

Populism and Redistribution in Latin America: Conceptualizing a Threshold of Acceptance

Maria Paula Saffon Sanin

PhD candidate in Political Science

Columbia University

Discussant

Pablo Piccato

Professor of History

Columbia University

time11:00am - 11:15am EDT

Break I

time11:15am - 1:00pm EDT

Panel VI: New Challenges in the Age of New Media Technology
Chair

Neni Panourgia

Visiting Associate Professor of Anthropology

New School for Social Research

Violence, Breakdown, Consent: Fascism and the Technologies of Crisis

Eleni Varikas

University Lecturer in Political Science

Universite Paris 8

Repressed Genealogies of “Race” and Empire in the Critical Responses to the new European Fascisms

Silvana Patriarca

Professor of History

Fordham University

Discussant

time1:15pm - 2:30pm EDT

Break II

time2:30am - 4:15pm EDT

Panel VII: Fascism and Beyond: A Round Table
Chair

Andreas Kalyvas

Associate Professor of Political Science

New School for Social Research

Is There Still Fascism in Latin America?

Carlos A. Forment

Associate Professor of Sociology

New School for Social Research

Is There Still Fascism in Europe?

Paul Corner

Professor

University of Siena

Discussant

Victoria de Grazia

Moore Collegiate Professor of History

Columbia University

Discussant

Simon Levis Sullam

Professor of History

University of Venezia

Participants
  • Giulia Albanese Faculty Member Dipartimento di Scienze Storiche, Geografiche e Dell'Antichita'
  • Andrew Arato Dorothy Hart Hirshon Professor in Political and Social Theory The New School for Social Research
  • Michele Battini Professor at the Department of Civilization Forms of Knowledge and Scientific Field Contemporary History University of Pisa
  • Ruth Ben-Ghiat Professor of Italian, History New York University
  • Juan Bertomeu Assistant Professor, Department of Law ITAM School of Law, Mexico
  • Hubertus Buchstein Chair, Department of Political Theory and the History of Ideas Greifswald University
  • Jean Cohen Nell and Herbert M. Singer Professor of Political Theory and Contemporary Civilization Columbia University
  • Paul Corner Professor University of Siena
  • Federico Finchelstein Associate Professor of History New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College
  • Carlos A. Forment Associate Professor of Sociology New School for Social Research
  • Stathis Gourgouris Professor of Comparative Literature Columbia University
  • Victoria de Grazia Moore Collegiate Professor of History Columbia University
  • Turkuler Isiksel James P. Shenton Assistant Professor of the Core Curriculum Columbia University
  • Andreas Kalyvas Associate Professor of Political Science New School for Social Research
  • Kostis Karpozilos Stavros Niarchos Postdoctoral Fellow Columbia University
  • Mark Mazower Ira D. Wallach Professor of World Order Studies Department of History, Columbia University
  • Jose Moya Professor of History Barnard College
  • Neni Panourgia Visiting Associate Professor of Anthropology New School for Social Research
  • Silvana Patriarca Professor of History Fordham University
  • Pablo Piccato Professor of History Columbia University
  • Kriss Ravetto Co-Director and Associate Director of Cinema and Technocultural Studies UC Davis
  • Maria Paula Saffon Sanin PhD candidate in Political Science Columbia University
  • Seraphim Seferiades Associate Professor of Politics Panteion University of Social and Political Science
  • Simon Levis Sullam Professor of History University of Venezia
  • Carlos de la Torre Director of International Studies Program, Professor of Sociology University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences
  • Enzo Traverso Professor in the Humanities Cornell University
  • Eleni Varikas University Lecturer in Political Science Universite Paris 8
  • Jeremy Varon Associate Professor of History New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College
  • Nadia Urbinati Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory and Hellenic Studies Columbia University