Events
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