[ecrea] CFP - National Populists: Right-wing Celebrity Politicians in Contemporary Europe

*National Populists: Right-wing Celebrity Politicians in Contemporary
Europe (Special Issue of /Celebrity Studies/)*

Guest Editors:

Neil Ewen, University of Winchester, UK.

David Zeglen, George Mason University, USA.

In recent years, the aura of celebrity has proven attractive to
neo-nationalist politicians who have become influential, and in some
cases dominant, players in the construction of their own regional
hegemonies. This special issue of /Celebrity Studies/ brings together
articles that focus on the ways that different populist/neo-nationalist
politicians in Europe – both from the ‘centre’ (the United Kingdom and
France) and the ‘periphery’ (Russia, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia) –
have utilized celebrity to convert their mythological narratives into
forms of legitimacy through the media.While the socio-economic levels,
cultural contexts, and media ecologies of Europe’s countries vary widely
between themselves, this special issue will suggest that the common
democratic dream of Europe – which is, of course, currently under urgent
threat – provided rich terrain for the growth of celebrity politics.
AsEurope fragments, and as a result ofthe alienation and anxiety
provoked by neoliberalism, many European groups have become increasingly
vulnerable to radical forms of solidarity exploited by populist
politicians who understand, and show a mastery of, their own affective
power as celebrities. These case studies, through the interrogation of
the celebrity politician within the political economy of the particular
national context, will consider what ways, and to what extent,
celebrity’s intersection with official political action is changing the
ways Europe’s nations are imagined and governed in the era of neoliberal
globalization.

We are seeking one further article to complete a special issue that
already comprises pieces by a diverse group of established and emerging
scholars on Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, Slobodan
Milošević, Viktor Orbán, and Vladimir Putin. We would be particularly
interested in proposals on the following figures: Silvio Berlusconi, Pim
Fortuyn, Jörg Haider, Pia Kjærsgaard, Frauke Petry, and Geert Wilders.

Interested authors should send a proposal (approx. 500 words) and a
short biography to Dr. Neil Ewen ( (neil.ewen /at/ winchester.ac.uk)
<mailto:(neil.ewen /at/ winchester.ac.uk)>) by *11 March 2016*, and will
receive responses by 18 March. The completed article (6000-8000 words)
will be due *1 July 2016*. Only previously unpublished essays will be
considered.


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