Introductory speeches were followed by a two-hour long panel during which four researchers part of FUDEM engaged in a discussion on the critical subjects which the research school aim to investigate.
Olga Sasunkevich, Associate professor in Gender Studies, is the scientific coordinator of FUDEM:
Olga, congratulations on a successful inauguration of FUDEM. How do you reflect back on Thursday afternoon?
I think it was a very nice inaugurating event with the panel about the role of humanities in research on democracy, illiberal populism, and politics. The message about the scholarly but also political relevance of FUDEM was successfully conveyed. It was great to see our colleagues and students in the audience. It means a lot that people found time in their busy schedules to attend our inauguration.
How long had you been planning the event?
All my life! The panel was planned since last spring and we got funding from the faculty for the speakers. But the whole inauguration was prepared within a month or so.
What do you think the students and others attending can bring from the inauguration?
That the future of democracy is currently at stake and the times we live in are unsettling. The academic freedom is endangered by literal threats to critical scholarship. But it is important to keep going and to challenge the normalization of sexism, homo- and transphobia, racism, military violence, extinction of non-human species and other forms of necropolitics that we currently observe in many political contexts across the globe.
What about the work that awaits FUDEM thrills you the most?
The collective process of knowledge production and intellectual solidarity. It was somewhat assuring to realize during the inauguration that many of us in FUDEM have a similar understanding of the current political momentum and of the role that humanities can and should play in these circumstances. I really hope that FUDEM can contribute with a new vision of the democratic future. But it is a hard work that we should be prepared for.
FUDEM is officially inaugurated. What will the Research school be up to next?
This spring we will have two more public events. On March 14 Ov Cristian Norocel from Lund University will hold a lecture “Gendering far-right illiberalisms in Northern Europe: Theoretical standpoints and empirical illustrations”. On April 11 Martin Knust from Linnaeus University will speak about Illiberal populism in audiovisual mainstream media. Both lectures will take place at 15.15-17.00 in Room C250 at Humanisten.
Text: Erik Pedersen
