The End Of the Liberal Order? Annual Conference 2017 on Populism

The Fourth Annual Conference of the Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies is dedicated to populism in Central, East and Southeast Europe. On June 1-3, 2017 internationally renowned scholars will present and discuss their research putting populism in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe in perspective. The conference "The End Of the Liberal Order? Central, East, and Southeast European Populism in Comparative Perspective" is organized by Ulf Brunnbauer, Ger Duijzings and Björn Hansen for the Graduate School and will be hosted in Regensburg in cooperation with the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

The dream of a united Europe seems to be on the ropes. Anti-EU platforms are on the rise, producing the first major faits accomplis such as Brexit. Hungary and Poland are governed by parties that portray Brussels as a second Moscow and oppose the European federalist ideal. Arguably, the most shocking event in this development is the election of a right-wing populist as President of the United States. The big-tent parties in Europe, which have so far maintained the post-war liberal order, have found no effective antidote to the wave of populism. In the post-socialist countries, the democratic achievements since 1989 seem under threat by policies that draw a clear line between “us” and “them”, foster hatred and offer easy solutions to complex problems. However, populism also indicates wide-spread frustration about inequality and alienation under the current capitalist system.

The four panels of this interdisciplinary conference will engage with the languages of populism; the typologies of populist politics; the historical trajectories of populism in the region; and populist subjectivities. In a special German language round-table open to the wider public, journalists reporting from the region will discuss the causes and likely consequences of populist politics.

The already confirmed keynote speakers are: the author and journalist John B. Judis (Washington), the media scholar Prof. Dr. Michał Krzyżanowski (Örebro), the Slavist and director of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies Prof. Jan Kubik (London) as well as the political scientist and scientific director of the ZOiS Prof. Dr. Gwendolyn Sasse (Berlin).

For attending the Graduate School’s Fourth Annual Conference please register until May 22, 2017 via email.

For further information please see the progam.