Round table: The New Faces of Fascism (LPSS 2026)
Round table
The New Faces of Fascism
Crisis, Critique, and Forms of Resistance
Museu do Aljube
July 15, 2026
18.00-20.00
Speakers
Clara Mattei (University of Tulsa)
Ewa Majewska (SWPS University, Warsaw)
Fabian Freyenhagen (University of Essex)
Tiago Saraiva (Drexel University)
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Until recently, there was a general assumption that fascism had been eradicated, because the horrors of WWII seemed to have left fascism morally bankrupt and politically untenable. Yet, in the early twenty-first century, the spectre of fascism has resurfaced. This re-emergence should not be understood as a simple repetition of the 1930s, but rather as the mutation of fascist tendencies under contemporary conditions, marked by multiple crises: economic, ecological, democratic, etc. But if fascism adapts to changing social, political, and technological realities, then how should we understand the relationship between its historical and contemporary forms? Is there a fascist rationality expressed across different historical contexts? How do climate crisis, migration, and bio-politics intersect with new fascist imaginaries? What role do gender, masculinity, and sexuality play in contemporary fascist fantasies? How do digital platforms reshape fascist mobilization and community-building? Is contemporary fascism still best understood as a symptom of capitalism’s recurring crises, or has it become an operative modality of contemporary capitalism itself? How does global capital intersect with – and potentially facilitate – the worldwide proliferation of fascist movements and regimes? How should we conceptualize resistance to fascism today? What are the philosophical and political foundations of anti-fascist thought, how have these evolved historically, and what challenges do they face in the present?
These and other questions will be explored at this public roundtable, whose premise is that the conditions enabling fascism’s emergence and the ways in which it operates can – and must – be understood through renewed critical resources, opening up possibilities for its resistance and eradication.
This roundtable is part of the Lisbon Praxis Summer School 2026, Critical Theories of Fascism, held at Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, July 13-17, 2026.
This activity is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310/2025, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (DOI: https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/00310/2025).