Populism Research Group
The Populism Research Group (PRG) at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ was established in 2018 and aspires to build a dynamic School-wide intellectual community for Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) and members of staff working on different aspects of the populist phenomenon.
The aims of the group are to:
- establish an informal space for the discussion, critique and development of theoretical and empirical studies on populism;
- support and link research on populism across scholarly disciplines in the University;
- coordinate with other Universities and external networks to promote international collaborative research and outreach activities;
- organise seminars and reading groups for postgraduate researchers working on populism as well as high-profile guest lectures that can appeal to broader audiences
- facilitate innovative research that can feed into teaching and learning activities;
- seek external funding for collaborative research projects on populist politics.
The group aligns with the Social, Political and Cultural Theory current of the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ but also fosters interdisciplinary research with colleagues grouped in the Political Communication and Nations, Migrations and Citizenship themes. It is linked internationally with the POPULISMUS network (based at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), the Populism Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association and collaborates with DESIRE (Centre for the Study of Democracy, Signification and Resistance in Brussels).
Group convener: Panos Panayotu.
For additional information or enquiries, contact us at: p.panagiotou2@lboro.ac.uk.
Our activities (guest lectures, presentations, reading group sessions, etc.) are free and open to all. Our schedule for the academic year 2021-2022 can be found below.
Date / time / room | Speaker/presenter | Theme | Information |
---|---|---|---|
3 November (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 [via Teams] |
Aidan McGarry & Petre Breazu |
Romaphobia in the Age of Populism: A Comparative Study of UK and Swedish Media | Book your place for free here. |
8 December |
Paris Aslanidis |
Margaret Canovan, Populist Gadfly | Book your place for free here. |
25 February |
Alexandros Kioupkiolis |
Commoning populism or popularising the commons: issues of transformative strategy | Book your place for free here. |
Members
Guy Aitchison (International Relations, Politics and History)
Marco Antonsich (Geography and Environment)
Petre Breazu (Institute for Diplomacy and International Governance)
Stavros Kartsonas (International Relations, Politics and History)
Giorgos Katsambekis (founder/convener 2018-2022; International Relations, Politics and History)
Ruth Kinna (International Relations, Politics and History)
Caglar Ozturk (International Relations, Politics and History)
Panos Panayotou (International Relations, Politics and History)
Giulia Piccolino (International Relations, Politics and History)
James Stanyer (Communication and Media)
Václav ŠtÄ›tka (Communication and Media)
Thomas Swann (International Relations, Politics and History)
Maria Tsiko (International Relations, Politics and History)
External associates
Benjamin De Cleen (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Emmy Eklundh (King’s College London)
Simona Guerra (University of Leicester)
Lazaros Karavasilis (Universität Bremen)
Alexandros Kioupkiolis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
Aurelien Mondon (University of Bath)
Marina Prentoulis (University of East Anglia)
Yannis Stavrakakis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki)
- Giorgos Katsambekis, Christos Iliadis, Ioannis Balampanidis & Evthymios Papataxiarchis (2022) 'Emotions of protest in times of crisis: representation, dislocation and remedy in the Greek "squares movement",' Political Research Exchange, 4(1), DOI: 10.1080/2474736X.2022.2035192
- Panos Panayotu (2021) 'Transnational Populism and the European Union: An Uneasy Alliance? The Case of DiEM25', in Paul Blokker (ed.) Imagining Europe, Cham: Palgrave, pp. 117-148.
- Patricia Rodi, Lazaros Karavasilis & Leonardo Puleo (2021) 'When nationalism meets populism: examining right-wing populist & nationalist discourses in the 2014 & 2019 European parliamentary elections', European Politics and Society, Published online, DOI: 10.1080/23745118.2021.1994809
- Ioannis Balampanidis, Giorgos Katsambekis, Christos Iliadis & Evthymios Papataxiarchis (2021) 'Ambiguous identities in crisis-ridden Greece: "us" and/against "Europe"', Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Published online, DOI: 10.1080/14782804.2021.1924641
- Lazaros Karavasilis (2021) 'The liberal facade of the contemporary far right' (book review) Patterns of Prejudice, DOI: 10.1080/0031322X.2021.1889151
- Giorgos Katsambekis (2020) 'Constructing "the people" of populism: a critique of the ideational approach from a discursive perspective,' Journal of Political Ideologies, Published online, DOI: 10.1080/13569317.2020.1844372
- Giorgos Katsambekis & Yannis Stavrakakis (eds) (2020), 'Populism and the Pandemic: A Collaborative Report,' POPULISMUS Interventions No. 7 (special edition).
- Benjamin De Cleen, Benjamin Moffitt, Panos Panayotu & Yannis Stavrakakis, Y. (2019) 'The Potentials and Difficulties of Transnational Populism: The Case of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25),' Political Studies, OnlineFirst, DOI: 10.1177/0032321719847576
- Giorgos Katsambekis & Alexandros Kioupkiolis (eds) (2019) The Populist Radical Left in Europe, Abingdon & New York: Routledge.
2022
- Populism Research Group founding member, Lazaros Karavasilis, has secured a 3-year postdoctoral researcher position at the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies of the University of Bremen in Germany, where he will be working along with leading scholars in the field on a project that examines the relationship between party-political organisation and protest discourses in recent social movements.
- Giorgos Katsambekis participated in the Roundtable discussion "Is anti-populism the way to react to populism?" on 23 May 2022, which was organised by "The Populism Seminar" team. The video recording of the event is now available to watch here.
- Giorgos Katsambekis delivered an invited lecture at the workshop "Discourse Analysis: Theory, Method, Philosophy" hosted by the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the European University Institute on 13 April 2022.
2021
- Panos Panayotu presented his work at the conference ‘Populism, Protest, and New Forms of Political Organization: Ten Years after the Movements of the Squares’ co-organised by the DVPW Populism Group & the PSA Populism Specialist Group at Freie Universität Berlin (8-10 Sep 2021).
- Panos Panayotu was interviewed by the journalist Boulika Michalopoulou at Radio MÎRA, discussing populism and sharing insights from his research. The interview aired on 5th May 2021 and is freely available on YouTube (in Greek).
- The Populism Research Group had a strong presence at the PSA Annual International Conference 2021. Panos Panayotu presented a paper titled 'Lessons for Left-Wing Populism from the 2010s Austerity Wave in Europe'. Lazaros Karavasilis presented a paper titled 'Left-Wing Populism Revisited: Examining the trajectories of SYRIZA and The Left Party in comparative perspective, 2009-2019'. Maria Tsiko presented a paper titled 'Populist Voices in the USA: Comparing Right- and Left-Wing Populists'. Giorgos Katsambekis chaired a panel on 'Populism/anti-populism left and right'.
- Giorgos Katsambekis gave a guest lecture titled 'Populism and "the people": beyond moralism and homogeneity' at Vrije Universiteit Brussel hosted by the DESIRE research centre on 9 March 2021.
- Giorgos Katsambekis gave an invited talk titled 'Populism and the pandemic' at the Populism Study Circle at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on 27th January 2021.
2020
- Giorgos Katsambekis gave a presentation around his work on populism at the Global Politics Lecture Series at EISPS hosted by University College London on December 9th 2020.
- Giorgos Katsambekis was interviewed by Matti Koskinen for a story that was published in issue 3/2020 of Ulkopolitiikka, the Finnish Journal of Foreign Affairs. The interview touched upon developments around the pandemic and politics in Europe, with a special focus on populism. Available to read in full here (in Finnish).
- Call For Papers: "Populism, Discourse, Radical Democracy," PhD Workshop at POLIS º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, 2nd July 2020. Keynote Speaker: Professor Oliver Marchart (University of Vienna). Prospective participants are asked to submit a 250-word abstract as well as a short biographical note (up to 80 words) as one file (word or pdf) to p.panagiotou@lboro.ac.uk by 10th February 2020. (To download the full CfP in pdf format, click here).
2019
- Lazaros Karavasilis has published an article in the WZB Democracy Blog titled 'Studying populism and distinguishing it from other -isms.' It can be accessed here.
- Panos Panayotu has published a co-authored article in the Democratic Audit, titled 'The Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and the limitations of transnational populism.' It can be accessed here.
- Stavros Kartsonas will present his work at the Moving Media, Memory, and History PGR Conference, 13 June 2019, º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ
- Lazaros Karavasilis, Stavros Kartsonas and Panos Panayotou will present their work at the International Conference in Ideology and Discourse Analysis, 31 May - 1 June 2019, University of Essex
- Lazaros Karavasilis will present his work at the postgraduate Populism Study Circle Seminar at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 22 May 2019
- Lazaros Karavasilis will join the Centre for Political Research at Panteion University in Athens as a Visiting Researcher in May 2019.
- Lazaros Karavasilis and Panos Panayotou will present their work at the seminar of the Research Network for the Analysis of Political Discourse of the Hellenic Political Science Association on the 10th of May 2019.
- Giorgos Katsambekis was elected as co-convener of the Populism Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association (PSA) for a 3-year term.
- Panos Panayotou and Lazaros Karavasilis presented their work at the 69th Annual International Conference of the Political Studies Association (PSA) in Nottingham (15-17 April 2019).
- The 3rd annual Workshop of the Populism Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association (PSA) was held at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ on the 12th and 13th of April 2019. Presenters came from various universities of the UK, from across Europe as well as from India and Turkey. Members of the º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ Populism Research Group, Panos Panayotou and Thomas Swann also presented their work. All panels, as well as the two Keynotes, were extremely well attended.
- Giorgos Katsambekis was invited by the Nationalism, Populism, and Radicalism research group of the University of Bath to present his work at a seminar titled 'Interrogating Populism' on 28 March 2019.
- Lazaros Karavasilis will be Visiting Researcher at WZB Berlin Social Science Center, working in the Research Unit Democracy and Democratization, between 28 February and 25 April 2019.
2018
- Call for Papers: 3rd Populism Specialist Group (PSA) Workshop, 12-13 April 2019. The confirmed Keynote speakers for the Workshop are Ruth Wodak (Lancaster University) and Michael Freeden (University of Oxford).
Past Events (2020/21)
Date / time / room | Speaker/presenter | Theme | Information |
---|---|---|---|
21 October (Wednesday) 14:00 – 15:00 [via Teams] |
Alexandre Christoyannopoulos |
Was Tolstoy a populist? | |
11 November (Wednesday) 16:00 – 17:00 [via Teams] |
Guy Aitchison (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ University, UK) |
Civil disobedience against authoritarian populism |
|
2 December (Wednesday) 14:00 – 15:00 [via Teams] |
Laura Grattan (Wellesley College, USA) |
Populist De-Identification: #FeelingTheBern in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter |
|
16 December (Wednesday) 17:00 – 18:30 [via Teams] |
Thea Riofrancos (Providence College, USA) |
Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador | |
17 February (Wednesday) 14:00 – 15:00 [via Teams] |
Cristina Flesher Fominaya (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, UK) |
Reloading Democracy: Critique, Re-signification, and Praxis in the Times of Crisis | |
17 March (Wednesday) 14:00 – 15:00 [via Teams] |
Athina Karatzogianni Guest chair/discussant: Cristian Vaccari (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, UK) |
Sleeping on a Volcano: The Ideologization Process on Digital Networks |
Co-sponsored by CRCC |
26 March [via Teams] |
Óscar García Agustín Guest discussant: |
The subject of Left-Populism: People, class, and intersectionality | |
7 May [via Teams] |
Lasse Thomassen (Queen Mary University of London, UK)
|
Deconstructing Sovereignty Discourse in a Time of Covid-19 | Part of the CRCC Seminar Series & co-sponsored by Populism Research Group |
12 May [via Teams] |
Kalypso Nicolaïdis (University of Oxford, UK) |
Reimagined Democracy in Times of Pandemic | |
19 May [via Teams] |
Katy Brown (University of Bath, UK) |
Combining discourse analytic traditions in the study of populism | |
26 May (Wednesday) |
Marina Prentoulis Guest discussant: Yannis Stavrakakis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece) |
Left Populism in Europe after the financial crisis |
Past events (2019-20)
Date / time / room | Speaker/presenter | Theme | Information |
---|---|---|---|
6 November (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 U122 Brockington Building |
Aurelien Mondon (University of Bath) |
The mainstreaming of the far right: populism, racism and "the people" | In collaboration with the CRCC Seminar Series |
13 November (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 K105 Manzoni Building |
Václav ŠtÄ›tka (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ University) |
Mediating populism: the impact of news exposure on populist attitudes and party support during the 2019 EP elections | |
20 November (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 K109 Manzoni Building |
Steven Parfitt (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ University) |
Populism and the Knights of Labor in the late-19th-century US | |
29 November (Friday) |
Marina Prentoulis (University of East Anglia) Giorgos Katsambekis (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ University) Emmy Eklundh (King's College London) Simon Tormey (University of Bristol) Helen Drake (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ University London) Alexandros Kioupkiolis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) |
‘The Populist Radical Left in Europe: Peculiarities, Prospects, Relevance’ | Book-launch event / Roundtable discussion
|
4 February (Tuesday) |
Speaker: Yannis Stavrakakis Respondents: Peter Lunt (University of Leicester) Zakia Shiraz Moderator: Giorgos Katsambekis |
‘Are there limits to populist strategy?’ |
Part of the School of Media, Communication and Sociology Research Seminars at the University of Leicester Co-organised by the Populism Research Group
|
6 March (Friday) |
Ramón A. Feenstra |
'Your democracy has been kidnapped. But is there a ransom?' | |
6 March (Friday) |
Paolo Cossarini |
'Sardines against Salvini. The dynamics of resistance to far-right politics in Italy.' |
Past events (2018-19)
Date / time | Speaker/presenter | Theme | Format | Room | Information |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 October (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 |
Giorgos Katsambekis (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ) | ‘Developments in populist studies. Mapping a booming field, setting an agenda’ | Presentation of the research group. Discussion on scope, activities, collaborations | K109 Manzoni Building | |
24 October (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 |
Yannis Stavrakakis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) | ‘Populism, anti-populism and crisis: challenges for democracy in post-Brexit Europe’ | Guest lecture in the context of the CRCC seminar series | U122 Brockington Extension building | Abstract & presenter bio |
7 November (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 |
Ruth Kinna (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ) | ‘Radicalism – Situating contemporary movement practices’ | Internal speaker | K109 Manzoni building | |
21 November (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 |
Emmy Eklundh (King’s College London) | ‘Why populists aren’t mad: The role of emotions in contemporary politics’ | Guest lecture | K109 Manzoni building | Abstract & presenter bio |
5 December (Wednesday) 13:00 – 14:00 |
Lazaros Karavasilis (º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ) | ‘Comparing right- and left-wing populism in Greece and Germany’ | PGR presentation | K109 Manzoni building | |
27 February (Wednesday) 13:00 - 15:00 |
Alexandros Kioupkiolis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) Athina Karatzogianni (University of Leicester) |
‘Horizontality, Verticality and Progressive Populism: Challenges for theory and practice’ | Seminar | SCH.1.05 Schofield building |
|
20 March (Wednesday) 14:00 - 16:00 |
Jonas Staal | ‘Performing the people: populism in political science and in artistic performance’ | Discussion with Arts & Politics PGRs. In collaboration with the Politicized Practice Research Group. Re-imagining Citizenship and Nation theme | K109 Manzoni building |