In the final episode of imPACT: Diálogos, anthropologist Letícia Cesarino discusses her digital ethnographic work with Bolsonaro supporters in light of political and anthropological theory, specifically focusing on populism and conspiracy theories. She elucidates the complex dynamics of the 2018 electoral campaign through, among other things, the concepts of ‘digital populism’ and ‘schismogenesis’, and a friend-enemy binary that structured its logic.

Letícia Cesarino is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Florianopolis. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and is currently working on the contemporary co-emergences between digital media, populist politics, post-truth, and neoliberal rationalities.

imPACT: Diálogos is an original production that is part of the ERC-funded PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory project at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

It is written, produced, and hosted by PACT postdoctoral researcher, Katerina Hatzikidi.

Sound design and mixing: Ignacio Albornoz Fariña

Cover image: Yul Koh

Special thanks to: Steffi da Silva, Julius Haferkorn, Gabriele Höffner, Michael Butter

To find out more about PACT, visit: https://erc-pact.eu/

and follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact

In the sixth episode of imPACT: Diálogos, anthropologist David Simbsler draws on his fieldwork with landless movement (MST) evangelical Christians in the run up to the 2018 presidential elections to challenge easy or straightforward associations between religious and political affiliations, showing instead the complex and multi-faceted nature of social relations in rural Pernambuco.

David Simbsler holds a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Strasbourg and works as a high school teacher in France. He is currently a PhD candidate in social anthropology at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), in Paris. He has conducted long-term ethnographic fieldwork in rural Pernambuco, where he researched religion and politics among MST activists.

imPACT: Diálogos is an original production that is part of the ERC-funded PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory project at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

It is written, produced, and hosted by PACT postdoctoral researcher, Katerina Hatzikidi.

Sound design and mixing: Ignacio Albornoz Fariña

Cover image: Yul Koh

Special thanks to: Steffi da Silva, Julius Haferkorn, Gabriele Höffner, Michael Butter

To find out more about PACT, visit: https://erc-pact.eu/

and follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact

In the fifth episode of imPACT: Diálogos, historian João Cezar de Castro Rocha speaks about Orvil, a book written by members of the Armed Forces as an answer to Brasil: Nunca Mais, the watershed book project that documents episodes of torture and violence during the military dictatorship. He reflects on the influence of Orvil on the current administration and on the Bolsonaro family in particular, and analyses the ‘hate rhetoric’ found in their political discourse.

João Cezar de Castro Rocha is Professor of Comparative Literature at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). He is the author of several books, among them, Literatura e cordialidade: O público e o privado na cultura brasileira and the O exílio do homem cordial: Ensaios e revisões. Among other distinctions, João Cezar has received the Endowed Chair Machado de Assis of Latin American Studies and was Ministry of Culture Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford, Tinker Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin, and John and Rose Jackson Fellow at Yale University.

imPACT: Diálogos is an original production that is part of the ERC-funded PACT: Populism and Conspiracy Theory project at the University of Tübingen, Germany.

It is written, produced, and hosted by PACT postdoctoral researcher, Katerina Hatzikidi.

Sound design and mixing: Ignacio Albornoz Fariña

Cover image: Yul Koh

Special thanks to: Steffi da Silva, Julius Haferkorn, Gabriele Höffner, Michael Butter

To find out more about PACT, visit: https://erc-pact.eu/

and follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact