current Guests
of the International Populism Research Network
Stefano Cavazza (University of Bologna) is professor of contemporary history at the University of Bologna. He was research fellow and Guest professor at the Ludwig Uhland Institut, University of Tübingen, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociale, German Historical Institute in Rom, Institut für Zeitgeschichte Munich. From 1–6 June 2026, he was a visiting scholar at Kiel University as part of the Erasmus cooperation with the University of Bologna. He has conducted research on Italian and German history on topics such as, fascism, populism, nation and nationalism, Folklore and politics, consumption.
Carlos de la Torre is one of the leading experts on populism in Latin America and the United States. He is a sociologist and Professor of Political Science. Until 2019, he was Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Lexington, Texas, and subsequently served as Director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida until 2025. In addition to populism, on which he has published six books and numerous influential articles, his research focuses on democratization, authoritarianism, racism, and citizenship in the Americas. De la Torre is a member of the International Network for Populism Research. His stay in Kiel is supported by the Presidium of Kiel University.
The International Network for Populism Research has successfully secured, through a competitive selection process, the opportunity to represent the Faculty of Arts and Humanities as part of the international programme of Kiel Week. During his stay as a visiting scholar from 22–28 June 2026, Carlos de la Torre will give a lecture entitled “Fascism and Populism.” The Presidium of Kiel University will fund his stay on behalf of the network.
Carlo Spagnolo is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fondazione Istituto Gramsci, and former President of the Italian Society for Contemporary History of the German-Speaking Countries (SISCALT). His research focuses on European integration, post-war history, German-Italian relations, totalitarianism, and populism. His stay in Kiel from 1–15 June 2026 is funded by the Chair of Political Theory, History of Ideas and Political Culture at Kiel University and the University of Bari. During his stay as a visiting scholar, Spagnolo will discuss his latest research findings on totalitarianism and authoritarianism, including at the workshop Right-Wing Populism and Authoritarianism.
Luciana Villas Bôas is Professor in the Department of Anglo-Germanic Languages at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and in the Graduate Programme in Germanic Languages at the University of São Paulo. Professor Villas Bôas’s stays in Kiel (November 2024–February 2025 and January 2026) were supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Alumni Programme, with contributions from the Institute of Social Sciences and FAPERJ. During her stays as a visiting scholar, Professor Villas Bôas worked on the research project “Storming Parliamentary Buildings in Germany, the US and Brazil: A Comparative Study in the Political Iconology of the Present” and gave public lectures and talks at Kiel University. Professor Villas Bôas participated in the international workshop “Continuity and Innovation of the Far Right” (January 2025) organized by the International Network for Populism Research and was co-organizer of the workshop “Symbolizing the People and Popular Sovereignty” (January 2026).
Mattias Lehtinen is a Postdoctoral researcher at the Politics Unit at Tampere University, Finland. He has gotten his PhD in Social and Moral Philosophy at the University of Helsinki and during 2025 he was a visiting scholar at the Political Theory, History of Ideas and Political Culture section at Kiel University. His research investigates the imaginary foundations of politics and democracy. Currently he is working on questions concerning the relations between political imagination and proximity, the imaginary and the rational and questions related to the imaginary foundations of right-wing populist political rationality. He works mainly with continental political theory, critical theory as well as with post-phenomenological thought applied to political imagination, radical democracy, political ontology, polarization and antidemocratic political pathologies.
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