Upcoming: The fifth edition of Ecologies of Emancipation – Imminent horizon: fascism or imperialism?
Organizational work of the fifth edition of the Ecologies of Emancipation summer school has begun. The school will take place at the hypha_etc campsite in Câmpu Cetății, between 10-16 August 2025.
The latest political and geopolitical developments, local and global, seem to confront us with a threatening double horizon: an accelerated slide towards fascism, or an equally precipitous retreat into imperialism - with all the overlaps, complicities and continuities between them. On the one side, then, a European democratic establishment that can only articulate its immediate future by renouncing the last remnants of a distributist state and democratic appearances, in a general arms race that promises nothing but authoritarianism and austerity at home, and devastating inter-imperialist conflicts on a global scale. On the other side, a populist insurgent bloc with deep roots and complicity in the very systems and apparatuses of Euro-Atlantic democracies, which is no longer shy in displaying its assumed fascism, and which promises, just as grimly, a harsh regime of austerity and authoritarianism at home, coupled with an equally provocative and bellicose attitude abroad, only in the name of a different set of values.
This, then, is the horizon towards which our age seems to be moving. The fifth edition of the “Ecologies of Emancipation” summer school aims to investigate the conjuncture of this imminent impact with the horizon: how did we get here, and what more could be done to delay the impact or divert its direction? In addition to reflections concerning immediate politics and geopolitics, the school also aims to articulate historical and cultural approaches - about the origins and manifestations of fascism and imperialism in history, their cultural representations and the theories that have tried to explain them - as well as investigations that address the phenomenon of contemporary fascism and imperialism through reflections on questions of political economy, law, sociology, philosophy.
Invited speakers include: Vladimir Borțun, Veronica Lazăr, Elena Trifan, Cosmin Cercel, Adrian Grama, Ádám Takács, Siyaves Azeri, Mihai Țapu, Adriana Stan, Ilinca Todoruț, Vali Stan, Mihnea Bâlici, Ana Țăranu, Ștefan Baghiu, Costi Rogozanu and Alex Cistelecan.
A call for applications will be arriving in the coming weeks.
