About
Beatriz Lopes Buarque is a Politics scholar working with critical theory broadly construed and Lacanian psychoanalysis to understand the ways in which digital capitalism intersects with issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and truth. In her doctoral studies funded by the University of Manchester she reinterpreted the concept of the multitude from a post-Marxist perspective and staged an encounter between Lacanian psychoanalysis and Michel Foucault’s theory of truth and power to understand the alt-right politics of conspiratorial “truth.” Beatriz has over six years of experience working with undergraduate students from Brazil and the United Kingdom through the NGO Words Heal the World, which was founded in 2017 to equip young people with knowledge and skills to challenge hate speech and develop strategies to tackle extremism. The NGO founded by her is the recipient of two international prizes, including the prestigious Luxembourg Peace Prize.
Awards:
Fellow of AdvanceHE (formerly the Higher Education Academy)
University of Manchester PhD Studentship
FCDO Chevening Scholarship
Luxembourg Peace Prize (on behalf of the NGO Words Heal the World)
Transcendence Awards (on behalf of the NGO Words Heal the World)
Research
Expertise Details:
Digital politics; Politics of truth; Alt-right; Conspiracy theories; Fantasies; Digital capitalism
Publications:
Buarque, B. and Zavershinskaia, P. (2022). The Far-Right Politics of ‘Truth’: an exploratory analysis of the ‘truths’ produced by AfD Kompakt and Patriotic Alternative. In Alfonso Bruno, V. (ed) Populism and Far-Right: trends in Europe. Milano: Polidemos. https://www.polidemos.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ebook-AA.VV_.-Populism-and-Far-Right-2022-9788893350679.pdf
Buarque, B. (2022) 'Is it conspiracy or "truth"? Examining the legitimation of the 5G conspiracy theory during the Covid19 Pandemic', Social Epistemology.
Allington, D., Buarque, B. L. and Barker Flores, D. (2021) ‘Antisemitic conspiracy fantasy in the age of digital media: Three ‘conspiracy theorists’ and their YouTube audiences’, Language and Literature.
Buarque, B. (2019). Breaking the vicious circle in the age of spectacle terrorism: the Words Heal the World project. In Piazza, G. (ed.) Global Crisis: Local Voices. London: IJOPEC.