The seminar series CIP is organised in collaboration between three departments at the Faculty of Humanities: Department of Cultural Sciences (contact person Olga Sasunkevich), Department of Languages and Literatures (Andrea Castro) and Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion (Hjalmar Falk).
The seminars are planned monthly throughout 2025. The schedule for the spring is finalised. The dates and themes for the fall semester will be announced in May-June 2025.
All seminars take place both at Humanisten (Renströmsgatan 6, Göteborg) and online. Pre-registration for online participation is required.
Schedule
February 24, 15-17, Room C442 at Humanisten or online
Hjalmar Falk, Ph.D. and docent in the History of Ideas and Sciences at the Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, University of Gothenburg
A Swedish Proto-Fascist? Rudolf Kjellén and the European ‘New Right’, ca 1890–1920
The political scientist, politician, and public intellectual Rudolf Kjellén (1864–1922) was and remains a controversial figure in Swedish political history and public debate. In this paper, Kjellén will be discussed as a representative of a ‘new right’ in the ideological context of early twentieth century Sweden and Europe. What were the ideas and central concepts of this ‘new right’, and what can its intellectual history and the case of Kjellén tell us about the longer history of far-right political thought?
If you want to attend online, register until February 21: https://forms.office.com/e/BTbnVEAT2J
March 13, 15-17, Room E208 or online
Keynote 1
Pablo Semán, Professor in Sociology and Anthropology, University of San Martin, Argentina, and Nicolás Welschinger, Assistant researcher from the National Council of Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET/UNLP)/ Assistant professor of Social Theory I, and Cultural Studies, in the Faculty of Humanities and Education Sciences, National University of La Plata (UNLP).
The rise of the extreme right in Argentina: historical roots and current conditions in a comparative perspective.
In this presentation we will address the distinctive features of the rise of the extreme right in Argentina and consider the characteristics of the consolidation of Javier Milei's government from his inauguration until February 2025. We will underline the centrality of the socio-economic problems that allowed him to come to power as well as the features of the anti-inflationary policy that has allowed him to consolidate his position in government so far. We will also underline the relationship between the social and political transformations of the last 30 years and the current political situation.
Against this backdrop, we will present our work in progress: a comparative analysis between the extreme right in Latin America and the Western European world, taking into account political, historical and socio-demographic characteristics that make it possible, so far, to highlight the differences in terms of electoral volume, programmatic radicalism and the style of implementation of the reforms advocated by these forces.
If you want to attend online, register at forms.office.com.
April 1, 15-17, Room C442
Lise Benoist, PhD student in cultural geography, Uppsala University
Far-right environmental activism and ’the local’: nature, identity, resistance
“Far-right environmental activism” might sound like an oxymoron when the far right is overwhelmingly associated with climate denialism and the defence of (fossil fuel) capital. While the latter remains dominant, this association nonetheless needs challenging. First, because climate denialism is evolving, as shown by far-right actors moving away from an outright denial of the science towards (partial) acceptance positions. Second, because there is a simultaneous rise of the far right promoting their own forms of what environmentalism should entail.
My PhD project is precisely concerned with this trend of far-right actors acknowledging the reality and urgency of ecological (and climate) crises, and accordingly integrating these issues into their political agenda. In France, this has primarily converged into the defence of ‘localism’ as a solution to a multifaceted ‘globalism’, consequently promoting nativist (re-)rootedness in place (ethnically, economically, politically) as a precondition to effective environmental action. While the literature on the political ecologies of the far right has brought about precious insights on the ideological underpinnings far-right environmentalism, little is known about the actual practices that result from far-right environmental discourses and strategies, nor about the activists who take part in such organising.
So, who are far-right environmental activists, what are they actually doing, how and why? Drawing on close-up research on extreme-right extra-parliamentary activist groups in France, I will present some preliminary results to these questions, with a particular focus on the conceptualisations, articulations and mobilisations of place and ‘the local’. How is far-right environmental activism taking place but also using place?
Between climate denial and (eco)fascism, far-right environmental activism highlights how ecological concerns over the ‘natural’ environment have become a funnel for a much wider (renewed) reactionary societal critique of consumerism, (neo)liberalism and globalised capitalism that ought to be taken seriously.
If you want to attend online register at https://forms.office.com/e/x1jpLsJS7Y
May 13, 15-17 - NB! Change in the schedule, Room C442
Andrea Castro, Professor of Spanish, Department of Languages and Literatures
The Power of Repetition: Catholicism, Poetry and the Press in 19th century Latin America
Throughout the 19th century, as various regions of the Americas severed ties with Spain, the Catholic Church maintained a strong presence in both the daily lives of people and the national imaginaries of the newly formed states. Even amid waves of secularization and laicization, the Church remained deeply embedded in multiple aspects of society and acted as a stronghold of an array of conservative views. This presentation focuses on the second half of the century in Argentina, where, under the influence of liberalism, significant secular laws were enacted. By examining the Catholic press from these decades—primarily from Argentina, but also in the broader context of other Latin American countries and Spain—I will explore how conservative positions were articulated aesthetically through poetry and other literary texts. This process relied on the performative power of repetition, serving not only as a form of resistance to liberal reforms but also as a means of continually reinforcing core ideological tenets of conservatism and reactionism. The presentation presents findings from the recently completed project “Conservative Sensibilites: Literary Imagination and the Press in 19th-Century Argentina” (Swedish Research Council)
If you want to attend online, register at https://forms.office.com/e/d9WMEmm0BL