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

In the fourth episode of imPACT: Diálogos, historian Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta speaks about the history of anti-communism in Brazil, the conspiracy theories that often form part of it, and militarism in Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. He points to continuities as well as disruptions between the different anti-communist waves in the country’s history and discusses why and how anti-communism, as a catch-all term, resonated again in recent years.

Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta is a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He has been a visiting professor at the University of Santiago, the National University of Colombia, the New Sorbonne – Paris 3 university, and at several universities in Argentina. His work focuses mainly on political history with a particular interest in the 1964 coup d’état, the military regime, and issues of political repression and anti-communism.

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 third episode of imPACT: Diálogos, journalist Letícia Duarte speaks about bolsonarism’s infamous ‘guru’, the writer and self-proclaimed philosopher, Olavo de Carvalho. Letícia delves into the world of conspiracy theories and culture war waged by Olavo, whom she describes as the architect of Bolsonaro’s far-right vision.

Letícia Duarte is a Global Reporting Fellow with the GroundTruth Project and a Global Migration Project Reporting fellow at Columbia Journalism School. Recipient of the 2019 Harper’s Magazine Scholarship, and of several awards, Letícia is also the author of the book Vaza Jato: Os bastidores das reportagens que sacudiram o Brasil. She contributes to several major journals and magazines, including The New Yorker and Revista Piauí.

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, follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact

In the second episode of imPACT: Diálogos, political scientist Camila Rocha speaks about the formation of the Brazilian new right in the early 2000s and the directions it is currently taking. She also discusses the concepts of ‘counter publicity’ and ‘leftist cultural hegemony’ and shares insights from her fieldwork with Bolsonaro voters.

Camila Rocha is a researcher at the Brazilian Centre for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). Her doctoral thesis, ‘Menos Marx Mais Mises’: uma gênese da nova direita brasileira, 2006–2018, received the award for best doctoral thesis from the Brazilian Association of Political Science (2017–19). Her research interests are political culture, political behaviour and qualitative methods. Among her publications are: As direitas nas redes e nas ruas: a crise política no Brasil (co-editor, with Esther Solano, 2019), and The Brazilian New Right and the Election of Jair Bolsonaro (with Esther Solano, 2021).

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, follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact

In the first episode of imPACT: Diálogos, anthropologist and historian Lilia Moritz Schwarcz sheds light on Brazil’s authoritarian past and offers insights into how this past may be reflected on its present. She draws an unexpected parallel between the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the handling of the influenza in the early 20th century and discusses the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on Brazil’s ‘minoritised majorities’.

Lilia Moritz Schwarcz is senior professor at the University of São Paulo (USP) and visiting professor at Princeton University. She has published several books, including Retrato em branco e preto (1987), O espectáculo das raças (1993), As Barbas do Imperador (1998), A longa viagem da biblioteca dos reis (2002), O sol do Brasil (2008), Um enigma chamado Brasil (with André Botelho, 2009), Brasil : Uma biografia (with Heloisa Starling, 2015), Dicionário da escravidão e Liberdade (with Flavio Gomes, 2018), Lima Barreto. Triste visionário (2018) and Sobre o autoritarismo brasileiro (2019). In 2010, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz received the Comenda do Mérito Científico, and she is a member of the American committee of Human Rights Watch. She writes regularly in Brazilian newspapers such as Folha de S. Paulo, Estado de S. Paulo, Globo and Nexo, for which she has written a column since 2016. Since 2015 she has been assistant curator for histories at the São Paulo Museum of Art.

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, follow our updates on Twitter: @ercpact