When: Sept. 26-27, 2025
Where: Online
Sponsored by the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory in Collaboration with the University of Denver
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You must register in order to receive a participation link for conference. Once you register, the actual link for the conference will be sent to your email address.
Please note that the dates of the conference have been changed from the original CFP due to the very low participation of Western hemisphere scholars. Because of time zone differences, the original schedule of noon on Sept. 25 to late afternoon Sept. 26 has been changed to early morning on Sept. 26 to noon on (Sat.), Sept. 27. Program times are Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory (JCRT) announces an online conference entitled Populism, Nationalism, and the Future of Democracy to be held Sept. 26-27, 2025. The proceedings will be published and developed into a special issue of the JCRT in 2026. Prizes of $300, $150, and $100 will be awarded for first, second, and third place in the competition among final submitted papers. Only papers that are submitted and selected for the conference will be eligible for the prize.
The conference seeks to explore the complex and evolving intersection between populism and nationalism and its rejection of the neoliberal global order. It aims to shine a particular spotlight on how religious ideologies and moral value systems, both conservative and progressive, motivate and shape contemporary populist movements as well as their nationalist forms of political expression. Finally, the conference looks to answer the more overarching question: what implications does the growing influence of populist and neo-nationalist constituencies have for the future of democracy?
Program
Friday, Sept. 26
- 13:30 – 14:00 | Jonathan Abernethy-Barkley, “Populism and Conspirituality: ‘Awakening’ As Conversion Narrative For Insurgency”, University of Aberdeen (UK)
- 14:00 – 14:30 | Hajer Ben Ameur, “The Grammar of Crisis: Far-Right Populism and the Semiotic Afterlife of U.S. Neoliberal Volatility”, University of Sousse (Tunisia)
- 14:30 – 15:00 | Marlam Donadio, “Democracy in Crisis: Insights from Nadia Urbinati”, Stony Brook University (US)
- 15:00 – 15:30 | Marko Krtolica, “Challenging the Global Order: How Radical Right Parties in Western and Eastern Europe Differ”, Iustinius Primus Faculty of Law (North Macedonia)
- 15:30 – 16:00 | Melinda Ren, “Amor Mundi and the Crisis of Democracy: Arendt’s Response to Populism”, University of Sussex (UK)
- 16:00 – 17:30 | Break
Keynote speaker
- 17:30 – 19:00 | Carl Raschke, “The Trendline is Toward Global Populism: So Who’s Sovereign Now?”, University of Denver (US)
Carl Raschke is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Denver in Colorado (US). He is the author of over 20 books and hundreds of scholarly articles over his more than half century academic career. His most recent books include Sovereignty in the 21st Century (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024), Neoliberalism and Political Theology: From Kant to Identity Politics (Edinburgh University Press, 2019, Force of God: Political Theology and the Crisis of Liberal Democracy (Columbia University Press, 2015), and The Revolution in Religious Theory: Toward a Semiotics of the Event (University of Virginia Press, 2012). He is the co-founder and senior editor of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory. He was named University Lecture at Denver for 2020-21. He serves on the board of the Center for Religion and Transformation at the ‘University of Vienna. He is also a regular contributor to thegloboscope.com.
- 19:00 – 19:30 | Alar Kilp, “Populism, Nationalism, and Moral Politics in Secular Estonia: Religion and Identity from the 1990s to Wartime Securitization”, University of Tartu (Estonia)
- 19:30 – 20:00 | Kevin Hujing, “Parties of Enmity: Rival Myths, Mimesis, and the Future of Democracy”, Metropolitan State University of Denver (US)
- 20:00 – 20:30 | Nazmul Arefin, “The Rise of Right-Wing Populism, Anti-Muslim Hate, and De-democratization: Reckoning Global North-South Nexus”, University of Alberta (Canada)
20:30-21:00 | Tomasz‑Łukasz Stanowski, “Populism , Symbolic Violence, and Synodality: A Comparative Study of the Pontificates of John Paul II and Francis”, Jagiellonian University (Poland
- 21:30 | Adjourn
Saturday, Sept. 27
- 13:00 – 13:30 | Maria Eduardo Costa and David Geraldes Santos, “Populist mythification and the moralization of politics: André Ventura as the people’s prophet in Portugal”, University of Beira Interior (Portugal)
- 13:30 – 14:00 | Kamal Makili-Aliyev, “Populism, Nationalism, and the Politics of Irredentism: Lessons from the Miatsum Movement”, University of Gothenburg (Sweden)
- 14:00 – 14:30 | Jyot S. Singh, “Populist Authoritarianism or Authoritarian Populism? Rethinking Regime Typologies through the Lens of Discourse, Jindal School of International Affairs (India)
- 14:30 – 15:00 | Joshua J. Ocon, “Between Logos and Loyalty: Does the Fanatic have a place in a Democracy?”, University of the Philippines – Dilman (Philippines)
- 15:00 – 15:30 | Dean Caivano, “Populism as Alibi: Weekend at Bernie’s and the Narrative Logic of Necro-Sovereignty”, Leheigh University (US)
- 15:30 – 16:00 | Efimija Zajkovska, “Religion as a Political Resource: Populistic and Authoritarian Abuses of Religion in Post-Socialist European Countries”,
- 16:00 – 16:30 | Nina Viaznikova, “Building National Identity: The Political Use of Architectural Reconstruction”, ”, Iustinius Primus Faculty of Law (North Macedonia)
- 16:30 – 17:00 | Break
- 17:00-17:30 | Closing Group Session (ALL ATTENDEES ARE ENCOURAGED TO PARTICPATE)
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As the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory works toward a special issue on Populism, Nationalism, and the Future of Democracy, our goal is to create an interdisciplinary forum to examine these pressing issues. We encourage contributions from a spectrum of perspectives, approaches, and methodologies.
Themes and Topics:
- religion, race, class, and secular ideology in the formation of populism cadres and national identity
- the varieties of populism with reference to local cultures and national legacies
- the tension and conflict between neoliberal concepts of global order and populist movements
- competing political theories of democracy and their historical and intellectual sources
- forms of “moral politics” (in George Lakoff’s phrasing), or the interaction of socio-ethical value frames and their political manifestations
- globalization, the “postmodern” fracturing of social identity, and its impact on democratic governance
- religious nationalisms and their significance, or lack thereof
- the nuanced meaning of the term “authoritarianism”, including focused case studies
- political and religious “mythmaking” in the genesis of populist and nationalist insurgencies
