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
April 1, 2015 Wednesday
8:30am - 9:30am EDT
9:30am - 11:15am EDT
Federico Finchelstein
Associate Professor of History
New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College
Enzo Traverso
Professor in the Humanities
Cornell University
Seraphim Seferiades
Associate Professor of Politics
Panteion University of Social and Political Science
Turkuler Isiksel
James P. Shenton Assistant Professor of the Core Curriculum
Columbia University
11:15am - 11:30am EDT
11:30am - 1:15pm EDT
Jean Cohen
Nell and Herbert M. Singer Professor of Political Theory and Contemporary Civilization
Columbia University
Kostis Karpozilos
Stavros Niarchos Postdoctoral Fellow
Columbia University
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
1:30pm - 2:30pm EDT
2:30pm - 4:15pm EDT
Nadia Urbinati
Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory and Hellenic Studies
Columbia University
Dimitris Kousouris
Postdoctoral Fellow
Institute for Advanced Study Konstanz
Hubertus Buchstein
Chair, Department of Political Theory and the History of Ideas
Greifswald University
Jose Moya
Professor of History
Barnard College
4:15pm - 4:30pm EDT
4:30pm - 6:15pm EDT
Andrew Arato
Dorothy Hart Hirshon Professor in Political and Social Theory
The New School for Social Research
Kriss Ravetto
Co-Director and Associate Director of Cinema and Technocultural Studies
UC Davis
Giulia Albanese
Faculty Member
DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE STORICHE, GEOGRAFICHE E DELL'ANTICHITA'
Jeremy Varon
Associate Professor of History
New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College
6:15pm - 7:30pm EDT
April 2, 2015 Thursday
8:30am - 9:15am EDT
9:15am - 11:00am EDT
Stathis Gourgouris
Professor of Comparative Literature
Columbia University
Carlos de la Torre
Director of International Studies Program, Professor of Sociology
University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences
Juan Bertomeu
Assistant Professor, Department of Law
ITAM School of Law, Mexico
Maria Paula Saffon Sanin
PhD candidate in Political Science
Columbia University
Pablo Piccato
Professor of History
Columbia University
11:00am - 11:15am EDT
11:15am - 1:00pm EDT
Neni Panourgia
Visiting Associate Professor of Anthropology
New School for Social Research
Eleni Varikas
University Lecturer in Political Science
Universite Paris 8
Silvana Patriarca
Professor of History
Fordham University
1:15pm - 2:30pm EDT
2:30am - 4:15pm EDT
Andreas Kalyvas
Associate Professor of Political Science
New School for Social Research
Carlos A. Forment
Associate Professor of Sociology
New School for Social Research
Paul Corner
Professor
University of Siena
Victoria de Grazia
Moore Collegiate Professor of History
Columbia University
Simon Levis Sullam
Professor of History
University of Venezia