2025–2026 Theme: Performing Populisms and Fascinating Fascisms
Our theme for the coming year grapples with fascisms old and new and compares them to the explosion of populisms in recent decades. Far from equating these two phenomena, we seek to explore the textured and historically specific variations of their different approaches to modern political and social formations that invest in “the masses.” In different ways, fascisms and populisms depend on visual cultures and performances for their power from charismatic icons that crystalize ideology to the sounds, choreographies, and framing of crowds as spectacle. Our invited speakers include scholars and artists who approach fascisms and/or populisms globally, in both historical and contemporary iterations.
Questions we will explore include: What aesthetic categories are most generative to understand modern and contemporary political forms? Who speaks for the many, and how is this speech shaped by visual cultures and performance? What roles do voice, rhythm, music, and noise play in constructing these political collectives? What is the role of new media platforms and/or global media conglomerates in the fomenting and sustaining of fascist or populist collectives, and how do they compare to earlier understandings of the crowd? How do emotions undergird and produce fascism and/or populism, or shape forms of living alongside or under them? How might the current upsurge in populisms and fascisms globally indicate unmet social needs, utopian promises of collectivity, or fantasies of the good life? How might art practice and theory help us explore, challenge, or otherwise rechannel these desires for a more democratic understanding of “the people” in all their complexity?
The CVC has a video archive available upon request.
Please contact us if you would like to view a particular lecture from Fall 2018 – Present.
Spring Programming
Nilo Couret
Lecture
Weapons of Mass Recruitment: Populism, Online Humor, and Shamelessness in Far-Right Latin America
Thursday, February 5
Memorial Library 126
5 PM
Workshop*
Race, Realism, and the Aural Politics of the Hollywood Soundtrack: New Approaches to Sound Hierarchies
Friday, February 6
University Club Rm 313
12 PM
*Registration is required for participation in the workshop. Please register by emailing cvcps@mailplus.wisc.edu.
Monika Mehta
Lecture
Politics of Scale: Censorship and Hindu Populism in Digital India
Thursday, February 26
Vilas 4070
4 PM
Workshop*
Networks
Friday, February 27
University Club Rm 212
12 PM
*Registration is required for participation in the workshop. Please register by emailing cvcps@mailplus.wisc.edu.
Astria Suparak with Tammy Lakkis
Asian futures, without Asians
Performative Lecture*
(Free public events; tickets required)
Get your ticket here.
Wednesday, March 11, 5:00 pm
Thursday, March 12, 7:00 pm
followed by panel discussion with Preeti Chopra (Visual Studies, South Asian Art & Architecture), Derek Johnson (Media & Cultural Studies; Film), & Nam Kim (Anthropology), moderated by Helen Lee (Glass Lab, Art Department)
Play Circle Theater
Memorial Union, UW-Madison
800 Langdon St. Madison, WI 53706
Glass and Neon Fabrication Demo*
(Free public event)
Friday, March 13, 2:00-5:00pm
UW Glass Lab, Art Lofts
111 N. Frances St., Madison, WI 53703
*Mask-wearing requested by artists. Masks will be available to all guests.
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò
Lecture
Political Obligation and Military Rule: A Postscript
Thursday, March 19
Elvehjem L150
5 PM
Workshop*
Researching Obligation and Agency in Africa
Friday, March 20
University Club Rm 313
12 PM
*Registration is required for participation in the workshop. Please register by emailing cvcps@mailplus.wisc.edu.
Jorge Pavez Ojeda
Lecture
Triple shock and image war: Rhetorical performances and visual effects in the Chilean political battleground
Thursday, April 9
Elvehjem L150
Thursday, 5 PM
Workshop*
Friday, April 10
University Club Rm 313
12 PM
*Registration is required for participation in the workshop. Please register by emailing cvcps@mailplus.wisc.edu.
Sponsors:
Our programming is made possible by support from the Anonymous Fund, Evjue Foundation, College of Letters and Sciences, and Department of Art History. Event co-sponsors include the Departments of African Cultural Studies; Art; Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies; Communication Arts; English, French & Italian, Gender & Women’s Studies; German, Nordic & Slavic+; Geography; Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies; Spanish & Portuguese; Theatre & Drama; as well as the Center for Culture, History, and the Environment; Center for German and European Studies; Center for Research on Gender & Women; Center for South Asia; Havens Wright Center for Social Justice; Latin American, Caribbean & Iberian Studies; and Wisconsin Center for Film & Theatre Research.