Dear colleagues,

We thought you might be interested in attending a joint DESIRE-ECHO Research Seminar we are organising with Aurelien Mondon (University of Bath) on 15 June, 15:00-16:30 - Pleinlaan 5, 4th floor, Raadzaal PL5.4.21. 

Building on his highly successful 2020 book ‘Reactionary Democracy’, Aurelien Mondon will be speaking about ‘The far right, the media and the construction of a reactionary people’. His talk will be followed by a discussion, and drinks in CoHop.

For a full description of the talk, please see below.

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DESIRE-ECHO Research Seminar

The far right, the media and the construction of a reactionary people 

Aurelien Mondon – University of Bath

Thursday 15 June 2023, 15:00-16:30

Pleinlaan 5, 4th floor, Raadzaal PL5.4.21

Talk Description

Building on the work he has done since the publication of Reactionary Democracy, co-authored with Aaron Winter in 2020, Aurelien Mondon will be discussing the role of the media in legitimising far right politics. Indeed, by inflating and misreading far right electoral success, the media often falsely construct the 'will of the people' as inherently reactionary. Moreover, due to the euphemistic labelling of far right parties as 'populist', media reports downplay and ignore the racist and extremist core of far right ideology. 

Bio

Aurelien Mondon (he/him) is a Senior Lecturer in politics at the University of Bath. His research focuses predominantly on the impact of racism and populism on liberal democracies and the mainstreaming of far-right politics through elite discourse. His latest book Reactionary democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream, co-written with Aaron Winter, is out with Verso.