Jeff Maskovsky

Preliminary abstract: We propose a two-stage workshop that explores anthropologically authoritarian, nationalist, and populist turns in different contexts, asking what social, economic, governmental, affective, political and historical forces coalesce in the making of new politics and angry publics today. Designed as a foray into public anthropology, workshop participants will discuss the multiplicity of forces, antagonisms, conflicts, and emergent political forms that mark the present as a moment of crisis, and will advance anthropological understandings of nationalism, populism, the public sphere, and emergent political forms. The first phase of the workshop took place at Vanderbilt University in March 2017. The second part is scheduled to take place at the CUNY Graduate Center in October 2017. Participants with expertise on politics, nationalism, affect, political economy, and the public sphere have agreed to participate. After the workshops, critical essays will be published in an edited volume published by NYU or MIT Press. We seek funding from the Wenner Gren Foundation to support participation in the workshop by three scholars who reside and work in Europe.