On 20 November and 4 December, the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) hosted two lectures exploring how the far right is using extremist narratives in the fields of gender and science.
The first lecture was given by sociolinguist and discourse analyst Laura Camargo (University of the Balearic Islands). Entitled ‘From rejection to appropriation: cross-gender strategies in the Spanish far right,’ Camargo delved into the discursive strategies used by the Spanish far-right party Vox in relation to gender. On the one hand, anti-feminism has a discourse that considers women weak and victimises men as aggrieved parties. On the other hand, feminationalism appropriates feminism and reconverts it into an identitarian and nativist feminism that exalts white Western societies and presents Maghreb immigration as a threat to women.
The second lecture was given by political scientist Balša Lubarda (John Hopkins University – University Pompeu Fabra Public Policy Centre). This lecture was titled ‘Ecologies of the right: ideology, policy and exclusion over the years’. In it, Lubarda analysed right-wing politics of nature across diverse political and cultural contexts in the last two centuries, highlighting analogies and differences. By examining empirical evidence from a number of cases (mostly from Europe), Lubarda identifed the key features and variations of right-wing ecologies, addressing also the challenges associated with the processes of mainstreaming, contagion and obstruction and outlining the ways in which right-wing ecologies, as a set of talking points, have influenced, or been mirrored in, other ideological formations, including segments of the left and green politics.
Both lectures, organised by ARENAS in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Dictatorships and Democracies (CEDID-UAB), were held at 3 pm (CET) in the Sala de Grados of the UAB Faculty of Arts and Humanities and were part of the parallel activities of the ARENAS exhibition ‘Going Extreme: How Extremist Narratives Are Destroying Democracies’, which ran at UAB in November and December.
