Call for Papers

10th Populism Specialist Group Annual Workshop

Université Bourgogne Europe
Dijon, France

7 – 9 October 2026

Keynote Speakers

Annie Collovald
Université Paris-Nanterre

Federico Tarragoni
Université Caen-Normandie

Who are the people?
Populism, disruption, identity

10th Annual Workshop of the Populism Specialist Group
in collaboration with the Chaire Professeur Junior "Discours Identitaires" and the Centre Interlangues Texte, Image, Langage

Keynote Speakers

Annie Collovald
Université Paris-Nanterre

Federico Tarragoni
Université Caen-Normandie

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Populism Specialist Group. Since its creation in 2016, the group has played a pivotal role in shaping the research agenda on populism: fostering creative discussions at the cutting edge of academic debates, challenging stereotypical accounts of the phenomenon, and providing a forum for critical perspectives on one of the defining features of contemporary politics.

To celebrate its first decade, the Populism Specialist Group returns to one of the foundational questions in populism research: “who are the people?”. While scholarship has long examined how “the people” is constructed through collective identification and antagonism, increasing attention has been devoted to the broader processes through which populism constructs, performs and contests political identities. This workshop therefore welcomes submissions on the topic of populism understood as a process of both collective identification and political embodiment relying on discourse, performance, affect, transgression and aesthetics.

Regarding collective identification, we invite contributions exploring how populism constructs, appropriates and polarises identities, from the constitutive antagonism between the ‘people’ and the ‘elite’, to identities such as the nation, the working class or other political communities. We particularly welcome reflections on political frontiers, inclusion and exclusion, and the democratic potential and limitations of these forms of collective identification.

Regarding political embodiment, the workshop will examine how populism is embodied and performed through populist actors. We welcome contributions exploring the role of populist leaders as vehicles for emotional investment and identification, the relationship between political style and identity, the subjective processes through which citizens identify with the identities leaders embody, and the ways in which performances of self - from habitus and gender to claims of authenticity and proximity - present a transgressive alternative to established elites.

The 10th annual workshop conference aims to examine these dynamics from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective. We therefore welcome broad, multidisciplinary yet critical interventions on topics including, but not limited to:

Achievements, limitations and ways forward in discursive, performative and socio-cultural approaches to populism
Identification and embodiment in populism
Subversion, transgression and the aesthetics of provocation
Populism and the (de)construction of collective identities
Inclusive and exclusive constructions of ‘the people’
Affect, and the role of emotions in the construction of identity
Anti-populist articulations of the people and polarisation

Please submit a 250-word abstract including your name and affiliation by the 1st of August 2026 using this form. We will notify applicants by the 1st of September 2026.

The workshop is free of charge. However, applicants should make their own arrangements for transport and accommodation.

The Populism Specialist Group provides an inclusive, vibrant and critical space for dialogue. We highly encourage junior and emerging, as well as established scholars, from different fields, ethnic backgrounds and regions of the world to participate.

For more information, please contact our convening team [populismpsa@gmail.com].