Authoritarian populism, body politics, and the assault on gender studies: Toward a new progressivism in education and society Book Chapter

Burns, JP, Green, CD, Nolan, J. (2022). Authoritarian populism, body politics, and the assault on gender studies: Toward a new progressivism in education and society . 33-48. 10.4324/9781003099482-4

cited authors

  • Burns, JP; Green, CD; Nolan, J

authors

abstract

  • In this chapter, the authors reflect on the resurgence of authoritarian populism in the context of the global attack on gender studies. They contextualise their inquiry in Masha Gessen’s recent analysis of autocracy, Umberto Eco’s discussion of Ur-Fascism, Foucault’s writings on biopower, and Jason Stanley’s scholarship on core tenets of fascism, specifically sexual anxiety. The attack on gender studies has functioned as both an assault on the rights and dignity of women and LGBTQ communities and a proxy for a broader attack on intellectuals, academic freedom, and democracy itself. Finally, the authors theorise a new progressivism for academia and society imbued with affirmative biopolitics linked to Cynic parrhēsia, or truth telling. A new progressivism in these authoritarian times could help revitalise and foster the ancient tradition of study as a technology of the self and demonstrate that we can reclaim the power that exists in our lives.

publication date

  • January 1, 2022

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 33

end page

  • 48