Call for papers
Populism and Aesthetics
7th Annual PSA Populism Specialist Group Workshop
21 – 22 September 2023
University of Leeds
(In-person event)
Keynote speakers
Cami Rowe (Lancaster University)
Jonathan Dean (University of Leeds)
In recent years, critical approaches in populism studies have seen a number of innovative contribu-tions that study populism as discourse, strategy, ideology, as well as political style, performance and, more broadly, as aesthetic. Populist movements, leaders and citizens are aesthetically transgressive, either by the way they behave in the public sphere or by the subalternised social groups their discourse brings into politics. These approaches open new fields of transdisciplinary investigation, which bring together discourse theory with theatre and performance studies, sociology of taste, class and culture, political communication as well as history, queer studies and social psychology, among other perspectives.
We are keen to support the growing field of populism studies in various disciplines and approaches by accepting proposals engaging with the question of populism and aesthetics. More broadly, we encourage submissions exploring theoretical, methodological, and empirical studies related, but by no means restricted, to the following topics:
- Populism, performance and cultural studies
- Populism and political communication style
- Elites, social classes and the populism of the privileged
- Populism and subaltern studies
- Populism and gender
- Populism and ideology
- Populism and history
- Populism, emotions and psychoanalysis
- Populism, citizenship and everyday politics
- Nationalism and transnational populism
- Anti-populism and populist hype
Please submit a 250-word abstract in our online form (https://tinyurl.com/populism23) by the 1st of June 2023. We will notify applicants by the 1st of July 2023.
There is no participation fee but presenters must arrange their own accommodation and travel.
We strongly encourage junior researchers, researchers of the Global South, women, non-binary persons, non-white persons, persons with disability and minorities to submit their proposals. All participants must abide by the PSA code of conduct.
Download this call for papers in PDF here.
PSA Populism Specialist Group 