[PHILOS-L] [SUSPECTED SPAM] [Last reminder] CFA: Critical Theories of Fascism | Lisbon Praxis Summer School 2026

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Critical Theories of Fascism

Lisbon Praxis Summer School 2026

13-17 July 2026

School of Arts and Humanities

University of Lisbon, Portugal

 

 

Keynote Speakers

Alex Demirović (Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung)

Clara Mattei (University of Tulsa)

Ewa Majewska (SWPS University, Warsaw)

Fabian Freyenhagen (University of Essex)

Tiago Saraiva (Drexel University)

 

 

In the summer of 2025, the Practical Philosophy Research Group of the Centre of Philosophy, University of Lisbon (Praxis-CFUL) launched the annual Lisbon Praxis Summer School (LPSS), focusing on topics of current and enduring relevance for critical practical philosophy, broadly conceived. Spanning one week, the Lisbon Praxis Summer School brings together early-career researchers, graduate students, and senior scholars to engage with new perspectives and foundational texts related to the selected theme. The program combines keynote lectures, text-based advanced seminars, and plenary sessions. A public round-table discussion featuring the keynote speakers consolidates and extends the themes explored throughout the Summer School to a broader audience. The program also includes evenings with social and cultural activities in different parts of Lisbon.

LPSS 2026: Critical Theories of Fascism

While the ways through which fascist tendencies is currently expressed are becoming increasingly visible, the causes of its re-emergence are more complex, and so are the challenges they pose to theory. Max Horkheimer famously said that ‘Whoever is not willing to talk about capitalism should also keep quiet about fascism’, implying that fascism is always in the background everywhere where capitalism reigns and it intensifies when capitalist realities become unbearable. In this sense, globalisation and neoliberalism have produced widening inequalities, labour precarity, and a pervasive sense of uncertainty and dislocation – fertile ground for fascist narratives that promise security, belonging, and stability. Yet the Marxist tradition sustained a robust critique of capitalism during the decades of emergence of neoliberalism and globalisation – decades in which fascism was widely considered defeated – but this alone did not prevent its resurgence. Understanding fascism’s reappearance therefore requires a more expansive analysis of its ideological complexity, attending not only to its entanglement with capital, but also to race, gender, nation, and empire. At the same time, as Theodor W. Adorno observed, fascism possesses an ‘intrinsically untheoretical nature.’ For this reason, the premise of this Lisbon Praxis Summer School is that fascism’s conditions of emergence and its ways of operating can – and must – be grasped through renewed critical resources.

Please check the LPSS website for the full CFA and updates.

How to apply

To apply for participation, graduate students and early career scholars are invited to submit a research statement reflecting their research interests in connection to the questions above and/or the following themes:

·       Frankfurt School’s Critical Theory of fascism  

·       Methods of a Critical Theory of fascism

·       Fascism and political economy/political economy of fascism

·       Fascism and gender: anti-feminism and crises of masculinity

·       Fascism and technology/fascism of platforms and algorithms

·       Intersections of fascism with racism, coloniality, and class

·       Fascism and polycrisis: economic, ecological, democratic …

·       Fascism and capitalism: neoliberalism, financialization, and austerity

·    The philosophical and political foundations of anti-fascist thought and resistance

 

Please submit your research statement and a short bio through the application form.

 

Application deadline: April 15, 2026

Announcement of selected applications: April 30

Registration fee

• Applicants with financial support from institutions based on high-income countries: 150 € 
• Applicants with financial support from institutions based on all other countries: 100 € 
• Applicants without institutional financial support: 50 €

The registration fee will be used exclusively to cover event-related expenses, including lunches and coffee breaks.

The University of Lisbon will offer 20 rooms (single or double) at a reduced rate to participants who wish to stay in its dormitories.

 

Organizing Committee

Tamara Caraus, Moirika Reker, Mariana Teixeira, Jose Rosales, Antonio Oraldi (Praxis-CFUL)

Contact

praxissum...@letras.ulisboa.pt

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).

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Praxis-CFUL

Practical Philosophy Research Group - Center of Philosophy, University of Lisbon

https://cful.letras.ulisboa.pt/praxis/

Alameda da Universidade

1600-214 Lisboa

Portugal

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