A workshop organized by Maria Jose de Abreu (Columbia, Anthropology), Bruno Reinhardt (Federal University of Santa Catarina), and Valentina Napolitano (University of Toronto).

This workshop aims to establish a dialogue between the critical turn in religious and secular studies and debates around the rise of the radical populist right in the Americas. It explores comparatively new populist theopolitical formations in their relation to a) sovereignty and soil, b) charisma and theatricality; c) neoliberalism and secular-religious assemblages. Whereas the correlation between the continent’s recent turn to the extreme right side of the political spectrum and changes in the religious field (growth of evangelical and Catholic charismatic Christianity) has been widely noticed, the nature of such cross-fertilization remains insufficiently theorized. Our purpose is to explore this theme through comparative inquiry on the shifting structures of religious and political authority in the region, including their theo-political entanglements. We assume that the concept of theopolitics (political theology “from below”) can be a valuable resource to grasp why and how political authority is being newly infused with a theological dimension at a moment in which the liberal democratic social pact is going through a widespread legitimacy crisis. From a geopolitical inception of the Americas and an intra-disciplinary standpoint, we also argue that theopolitics allows for a better understanding of ongoing transformations of theological discourses and practices in the light of an incarnated politics.

Schedule

Monday, April 11th

9:15-9:30 - Introductory Remarks

9:30 - 10:30 " 'Satan, be gone!' : evangelicalism, indigeneity, and refusals of hybridity in post-coup Bolivia" - Mareike Winchell (University of Chicago)
Commentary: Maria José de Abreu 

10:30 - 11:30 "Theopolitics and the economy of hate in post-revolutionary Nicaragua" - Luciana Chamorro Elizondo (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
Commentary: Carlota Carlota McAllister

11:30-11:40 Coffee Break

11:40-12:40 "Sovereign incisions" -  Maria José de Abreu (Columbia University)
Commentary: Joseph Russo

12:40-14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:00 "The Katechon and the Messias: time, history, and threat in Brazil’s aspirational fascism"-  Bruno Reinhardt (Federal University of Santa Catarina)
Commentary: Cláudio Lomnitz 

15:00 - 16:00 "Andrés Manuel López Obrador's theory of history"-  Claudio Lomnitz (Columbia University)
Commentary: Valentina Napolitano

16:00-16: 10 - Coffee Break

16:10 -17:00 "Immanent singularity and theopolitical charisma" - Valentina Napolitano (University of Toronto)
Commentary: Luciana Chamorro Elizondo

Tuesday, April 12th

9:30 - 10: 30 "Hiding in Plain Sight: QAnon and its Seekers"- Joseph Russo (Purchase College, State University of New York)
Commentary: Letícia Cesarino 

10:30-11:30 "Do artifacts have theopolitics? Bolsonarist resonances during the covid-19 pandemic" - Letícia Cesarino (Federal University of Santa Catarina)
Commentary: Mareike Winchell

11:30 - 11:40 Coffee Break

11:40-12:40 "A house underground: anti-semitic conspiracy theories and the crisis of planetary sovereignty in Chilean Patagonia" - Carlota McAllister (York University)
Commentary: Bruno Reinhardt

12:40 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:00 Concluding Remarks and Discussion