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 of the Political Studies Association. Since its creation in 2016, the PSG has played a pivotal role in shaping the research agenda on populism: fostering creative discussions at the cutting edge of academic debates, challenging stereotypical and reductive depictions of populism, and uplifting critical voices on a phenomenon that keeps on shaping local and global politics.

Scholarly debates have long placed collective identification and antagonism at the heart of how "the people" is constructed, which is why the PSG is returning to this fundamental question of “who are the people?” in the workshop celebrating its first decade. Indeed, populism is not limited to mere political discourse: it brings identities to the fore, both at the collective and individual levels.

At the collective level, this workshop aims to analyse how populism appropriates, redefines and polarises collective identities, whether this concerns the fundamental antagonism within populism between the two identity constructs of the ‘people’ and the ‘elite’, or the identities often associated with it, such as the nation or the working class. It thus raises the question of conflict and otherness within populist identities, the construction of an ‘us’ versus ‘them’, as well as the democratic potential and limitations of these conflicting identities.

Alongside this collective dimension, this workshop will also examine the role of individual identity in the discursive and performative staging of populism. By addressing the particular importance of populist leaders as vehicles for emotional investment and identification, we invite contributions considering how politicians adopting the populist style embody a transgressive alternative to the traditional political class while associating in turn their identities with the image of the (wo)man of the people.

The 10th annual PSG 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
Essentialisation and creolisation of ‘the people’
Aesthetics, body politics and hegemony
Affect and collective identities
Anti-populism 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].