Authoritarianism and culture conference – Historical perspectives on culture wars, literature, and the vulnerability and resilience of democratic institutions
This transdisciplinary conference will examine the relation of writers and intellectuals to extreme politics, historically and today. It actually takes a certain type of intellectual firmness to bring democracy down, which is why “populism” finds its most dangerous forms when it is voiced by eloquent intellectuals.
Censorship, freedom of speech and “cancel culture”
We invite contributions dealing with censorship, freedom of speech and “cancel culture”, especially from a historical perspective.
The conference encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration between intellectual historians, scholars of literature, philosophers and social scientists concerning the dynamics of rhetoric and political thought in modern society.
Bringing ideology back in means to study it in new ways, focusing not only on the lone professor or artist, but on the cognitive powers of tropes of speech and the spread of new rhetoric between various domains in society, the role of think tanks or various media platforms. Intellectuals exercise influence in specific technological and institutional contexts.
Conspiracy theory and media change
We invite contributions on conspiracy theory and media change. Today there is much research on the social media, the internet, and the conspiracy mindset. But the interwar years were also an age when conspiracy theories influenced politics, in a rapidly changing media environment. The antisemitic fantasies of Hitlerism and the paranoia of Stalinism were not more anchored in reality than the fantasies of QAnon, and they were in some cases spread by intellectuals.
The controversies concerning the trustworthiness of professional journalism invites historical comparison. Thus, the contemporary concept of “fake news” is eerily similar to the way in which interwar right-wingers would deride journalism as “Lügenpresse”.
Transitory justice in the cultural domain
A final theme of the meeting is transitory justice in the cultural domain. Cultural autonomy is essential to liberal democracy; how did the transition from dictatorship and occupation to cultural autonomy and liberal democracy take place? What purges, trials, and tribunals among intellectuals occurred and did they help the transition from wartime occupation and dictatorship back to liberal democracy?
Please send abstracts by 1 February 2026 to kjetil.jakobsen@nord.no and pal.c.halvorsen@oslomet.no
Early career scholar, who get their papers accepted, may be offered free board and lodging (breakfast and lunch).