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Panayota Gounari “The debate around Critical Race Theory in the US and the Discourses of Historical Revisionism”

Far-right populist authoritarianism builds on the rhetoric of historical revisionism. Revisionist history can be illustrated in the U.S. Republicans’ backlash against using Critical Race Theory in school curricula, promoting at the same time ‘Patriotic Education,’ a whitewashed nativist version that bears little relevance to the present, while selectively erasing the past. This seminar explores the features and politics of historical narratives, collective remembering and their role in supporting and strengthening the authoritarian far-right Trumpist rhetoric. The control over the collective historical narrative is central in far-right politics, and Trumpism has successfully integrated a dangerous historical revisionism into its muddy ideological mix. The distortion of history has traditionally been at the core of all ideological struggles. Features of far-right authoritarian narratives will be presented in an attempt to frame history as a critical pedagogical project and pedagogy as a historical project. Different themes will be weaved under the light of history and the process of historicization, situating social phenomena and events in their historical dimension.

bio

Panayota Gounari is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Using her background in critical applied linguistics and critical pedagogy, she investigates social issues through the lens of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and their implications for pedagogy, always aiming to produce socially committed research.
Her current research focuses on far-right populist discourses and authoritarianism, the discourse of the Critical Race Theory debate and the discourses of collective memory and historical revisionism. She has also written on Critical pedagogy and educational and linguistic policy reforms. Her most recent book From Twitter to Capitol Hill: Far-right Authoritarian Populist Discourses, Social Media, and Critical Pedagogy (Brill 2022) explores far-right authoritarian populist discourses in social media in the context of Trump’s presidency and the January 6th insurrection, in an attempt to illuminate how online extremism works and the ways discourses shape social events.

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bio

Panayota Gounari is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Using her background in critical applied linguistics and critical pedagogy, she investigates social issues through the lens of Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) and their implications for pedagogy, always aiming to produce socially committed research.
Her current research focuses on far-right populist discourses and authoritarianism, the discourse of the Critical Race Theory debate and the discourses of collective memory and historical revisionism. She has also written on Critical pedagogy and educational and linguistic policy reforms. Her most recent book From Twitter to Capitol Hill: Far-right Authoritarian Populist Discourses, Social Media, and Critical Pedagogy (Brill 2022) explores far-right authoritarian populist discourses in social media in the context of Trump’s presidency and the January 6th insurrection, in an attempt to illuminate how online extremism works and the ways discourses shape social events.

seminar video

Play Video

seminar video

Panayota-Gounari-Cover

seminar

Panayota Gounari “The debate around Critical Race Theory in the US and the Discourses of Historical Revisionism”

Far-right populist authoritarianism builds on the rhetoric of historical revisionism. Revisionist history can be illustrated in the U.S. Republicans’ backlash against using Critical Race Theory in school curricula, promoting at the same time ‘Patriotic Education,’ a whitewashed nativist version that bears little relevance to the present, while selectively erasing the past. This seminar explores the features and politics of historical narratives, collective remembering and their role in supporting and strengthening the authoritarian far-right Trumpist rhetoric. The control over the collective historical narrative is central in far-right politics, and Trumpism has successfully integrated a dangerous historical revisionism into its muddy ideological mix. The distortion of history has traditionally been at the core of all ideological struggles. Features of far-right authoritarian narratives will be presented in an attempt to frame history as a critical pedagogical project and pedagogy as a historical project. Different themes will be weaved under the light of history and the process of historicization, situating social phenomena and events in their historical dimension.

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