Overview

Keyword #2 | Interculturalism and Populism

Starting from the end of World War II, we have witnessed the proliferation of frameworks attempting to define the diversification of national populations. Among these frameworks, interculturalism has enjoyed a wave of renewed popularity much as a pedagogical tool in educational institutions as a public policy through which social tensions are smothered. However, it has been countered by the emergence of Sovereignist, nationalist and nativist public discourses which mark especially migrants/refugees as illegitimate/undesirable national subjects. Misleadingly referred to as populism, these discourses appear to be opposed to the intercultural approach of civic reciprocity and understanding. Starting from the hypothesis that they are not oppositional, this roundtable will examine both sets of discourses in relation to past national debates concerning the management of populations and, thus, unravel how both interculturalism and populism iterate the colonial limitations of liberal democracies. Accordingly, the invited speakers will re-assess the emergence and uses of interculturalism and populism as well as elaborate on alternative ways of envisioning national collectives.

Speakers:

Luca Manucci (ICS), Manuela Guilherme (CES), Amit Singh (CES), Naky Gaglo (African Lisbon Tour), Maria Elena Indelicato (CES)  | Chair: Cristiano Gianolla (CES)

Bio notes

Cristiano  Gianolla is a Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) where he integrates the research team for the project ECHOES, and research groups DECIDE and ITM. His research interest are democratic theories and their intersections with the metaphorical South, intercultural dialogue, cosmopolitanism and post-colonialism.

Luca Manucci is research fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICs), University of Lisbon where he works with the research team of the project ‘Rethinking Populism’. He examines the link between populism and collective memory from a historical and comparative perspective.

Manuela Guilherme has been a Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra, since 2002, where she is currently a member of the ‘Research Group on Humanities, Migration and Peace Studies’. Her research interests concentrate on critical intercultural communication and education and her last publications have developed a conceptual matrix with three axes, namely: (a) glocademia; (b) glocal languages; and (c) intercultural responsibility.

Amit Singh is a doctoral candidate at CES and research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Indian Languages and Society (INLANSO), Varanasi, in India. His academic interests include freedom of expression, multiculturalism, religious fundamentalism, Hindutva, refugees, and secularism.

Naky Gaglo freelance and passionate of history, in 2014 created the African Lisbon Tour, a touristic platform with the goal to share about the lost, covered, unknown or silenced history of Portugal and the African Continent; the aim of the platform is to exchange about topics less or rarely discussed such as Slave trade, Post-colonialism, Racism.   

Maria Elena Indelicato is a 2019 Scientific Employment Individual Stimulus (FCT) recipient at the CES. Her current research project ‘A Genealogy of Anti-Racism: Cultural Anthropology, Race Displacement and Knowledge Transliteration’ approaches interculturalism as a strategic discursive formation to do anti-racism without race.