Memory in the Populist Radical Right

Overview

This event will serve to explore the role of colonial memory in the contemporary Italian populist radical right, developing on the content of the recent book ‘The Politics of Memory in the Italian Populist Radical Right’ (Routledge 2023) by the speaker.

The book originally adopts postcolonialism as an analytical framework to critically examine which roles colonial memory plays in the Italian populist radical right. Considering the timeframe between 2013 and 2021, this book suggests that the contemporary Italian populist radical right selectively shaped its memory of the colonial past, expunging the most difficult aspects from it.

The fact that the Italian populist radical right parties examined do not fully acknowledge the controversial aspects of Italy’s colonial past, which are bracketed off discourse, may contribute to the deployment of colonial discourse by these same parties when discussing immigration. From this Italian case study, broader implications can be drawn regarding the role of colonial memory in political discourse, which is a topical matter across Europe.

This seminar is part of a series within the UNPOP project – UNpacking POPulism: Comparing the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour, which aims to explore how narratives of emotion allow a deeper analysis of the way populist phenomena constitute and influence political behaviour.

Thus, the series of events developed throughout the project will address several issues involving the recent growth of populism, focusing on the role of emotions – both those considered negative such as anger and fear, and those considered positive such as hope and love – in political behaviour.

UNPOP is coordinated by Cristiano Gianolla and Lisete Mónico and is based at the Centre for Social Studies and by CINEICC – Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention of the University of Coimbra, and is funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CPO-CPO/3850/2020).

Bio note

Marianna Griffini holds a PhD in European and International Studies from King’s College London. She joined the Department of European and International Studies as a Lecturer (Education) in 2020. Her research focuses on party politics, especially on populism, on institutionalisation, on Italian politics, and on migration politics. She has taught widely on topics related to democracy, populism, immigration, post-colonialism, and International Political Economy. She is the co-convenor of the Policies and Governance in Europe (PAGE) Double Degree (KCL-Luiss University), and she is Deputy Director of the Centre for Italian Politics at the European and International Studies from King’s College London.

Marianna has been nominated Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 2020, and in 2022 she has been awarded the EU Commission Seal of Excellence, a quality label recognising deserving Marie Sklodowska Curie grant applications. She has also won several small grants awarded by the department and the faculty, to attend conferences and to start new research projects.

This activity will be provided through Zoom platform and does not require registration. Participation is limited to the number of places available >> https://zoom.us/j/85866355268 | ID: 858 6635 5268 | Password: 584870

Please keep the microphone on mute until the discussion is open. The host may remove disruptive participants.

Open activities in digital format, such as this one, do not grant a declaration of participation. Such document will only be guaranteed in events with prior registration and regulated access.