LSE Joint Sessions on Critical Europe

We are delighted to announce the LSE Joint Sessions on Critical Europe 2026, a two-day, in-person symposium open to early-career researchers (PhD candidates and post-doctoral scholars), to be held on 26-27 February 2026 at the LSE European Institute.

For many years, the far right has been ascendant across Europe. This is not only reflected in the electoral arena, but also in the striking mainstreaming of a set of discursive tropes. Current moral panics about the ‘great replacement’, ‘wokeism’, or ‘gender ideology’ amongst others can be traced back to far-right or neo-fascist political entrepreneurs before becoming enmeshed in the political field. As these diagnoses and the networks propagating them have attained a quasi-hegemonic position in parts of European public life, seemingly secure bastions of the post-WWII liberal project have been challenged. Civil liberties—such as the right to protest or freedom of expression—are being curtailed, the ‘rule of law’ is fraying, denationalisations target political and racial enemies. Simultaneously, the European political economy is put on war footing.

This constellation of practices, ideologies, and movements are difficult to define and unify under one label; ‘conservatism’, ‘reactionary movements’ and ‘far-right politics’ are terms which blur into one another. And yet an overarching question demands attention: “Is this fascism?” (LRB, 2025). This symposium starts from the sites of struggle where these terms emerge, in order to interrogate how the resultant politics might be defined and analysed.

We therefore invite empirical and/or theoretical contributions on the following sites in which conservative, fascist, and right-wing politics interact with the public sphere, movements of resistance, and the (neo-)liberal order:

1. As indicated by the EU Commission’s focus on ‘protecting and promoting a European way of life’, European politics is haunted by the idea of a ‘home’ under threat. This permeates European memory politics, and manifests as the mainstreaming of far-right positions on immigration and race; moral panics on gender, queerness, and the family; and the cooptation of ecological questions as a matter of protecting national-racial living space(s).
2. The purchase of these ideas is linked to the networked nature of right-wing politics. This pertains to the so-called ‘far-right international’ uniting nativist movements across national borders. Yet it also pertains to domestic alliances between liberal, conservative, and fascist actors—evidenced by practices of parliamentary cooperation between centre and far-right, or the repression of Palestine solidarity across Europe.
3. These ideas and networks are flanked by a predatory political economy. Existing military-industrial complexes of urban policing and anti-immigrant border control are expanding, and a broad political coalition aims to halt Europe’s economic decline via rearmament and military Keynesianism. Procurement practices link this European agenda to the global techno-fascism of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

We strongly encourage submissions who tackle and interrogate these sites of struggle through ethnographic work, critical discourse analysis, theorisation, and research-activist practices, among others. All disciplines (and beyond-disciplinary work) are welcome.

To apply, please submit an abstract of approx. 250 words (1,750 characters) via the Microsoft Form linked below by October 31, 2025. Limited financial support for travel and accommodation is available for participants without access to their home institutions’ resources. If you wish to be considered for financial aid, please indicate this on your application. We will also do our utmost to accommodate different needs, and so you are respectfully encouraged to highlight potential considerations on your application form.

From the abstracts received, the organisers will divide the symposium into workshop streams or clusters of research areas. A plenary debate with all participants will explore the question “Is this fascism?”. We aim to create a space for early-career researchers to discuss the pedagogical, political, and interpersonal tools available to make sense of the current political moment, and to explore how anti-fascist activism interacts with notions of ‘rigorous’ research.

To facilitate in-depth discussion and productive feedback, successful applicants will be asked to submit an extended research note of 2,500-3,000 words that will be circulated for reading among co-panelists no less than two weeks before the symposium.

Please apply via the Microsoft Form here.