11:00 AM Susan Neiman, Benjamin Zachariah

Other People’s Fascisms?
Conference
Conception: Debojit Thakur (Calcutta) and Benjamin Zachariah (Potsdam)
It will also be broadcast live on Zoom. To watch online, please register here:
Thursday, October 9
Friday, October 10
With: Martina Bitunjac (Potsdam), Sebastiaan Faber (Oberlin), Federico Finchelstein (New York), Roger Griffin (Oxford), Irina Nastasă-Matei (Bucharest), Luisa Passerini (Florence), Antonio Costa Pinto (Lisbon), Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (Berlin), Jason Stanley (Toronto), Richard Wolin (New York).
Tolerance towards other people’s fascisms has been a feature of political life. This is complicated by the ability of right-wing movements and states to work together. Internationalism is not often a concept associated with the right. It is undeniable, however, that both historically and in contemporary times, völkisch nationalists and fascist organisations have been more flexible in their ability to mobilise in cooperation with one another than a self-proclaimed left, who share, theoretically, similar internationalist concerns with one another. From the so-called ‘Fascist International’ in the 1920s to contemporary völkisch nationalists, dictatorial governments, and authoritarian movements, it appears that both pragmatic approaches to alliance-building and shared ideological propensities have enabled internationalist solidarities on the right. From the Axis itself to the admiration for Ataturk in some Nazi circles, to imagined pan-Aryan solidarities among Indian, Iranian, Irish, and Germanic nationalists, to contemporary alliances of right-wing, proto- or neo-fascist groups across continents, in Argentina, Brazil, India, Russia, or the United States, we can see a shared vocabulary, a style of politics, and cross-border organisation that transcends the apparent narrowness of specific völkisch or (proto-)fascist movements. How, then, do we make sense of this phenomenon?
Program
Oct 9, 2025
11:15 AM Roger Griffin
The Relevance and Irrelevance of International Fascism as a Contemporary Phenomenon
12:15 PM Benjamin Zachariah
Fascist Repertoires, Fascist Vocabularies
2:30 PM Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe
Transnational Fascism in Western Ukraine: From Bandera to Putin
3:30 PM Jason Stanley
Racism and Fascism Redux
4:45 PM Martina Bitunjac
Origins, Development, and Legacy of the Ustaša Movement in a Geopolitical Context
5:45 PM Luisa Passerini
‘Married to the Country’. Lines for a Research Project
7:00 PM
A walk through the John Heartfield exhibition (with Benjamin Zachariah, Potsdam)
Oct 10, 2025
10:00 AM Irina Nastasă-Matei
Nazi Soft Power in Eastern Europe. The Role of Humboldt Fellowships in Romanian Far-Right Networks
11:00 AM Sebastiaan Faber
‘Spiritual Guide of the World’. Spain as a Transatlantic Fascist Hub, Then and Now
2:00 PM Richard Wolin
Neofascist Männerphantasien
3:00 PM Federico Finchelstein
Wannabe Fascists
4:30 PM António Costa Pinto
Latin America in the Era of Fascism
5:30 PM Debojit Thakur
Fascists before Fascism. A History of Hindu Nationalism and Its War on History
6:45 PM Susan Neiman, Benjamin Zachariah
In Memoriam: Tom Lehrer (1928-2025)
Veranstaltung in englischer Sprache