[Commlist] Sixth Helsinki Conference on Emotions, Populism, and Polarisation - CfP

Since 2019, the HEPP conferences have provided a space to explore themes 
related to populist mobilisation, polarisation, and the dynamics of 
emotional engagement in various political and mediatised contexts. In 
addition to this thematic core, the HEPP6 conference will include a 
special focus on the emotional dynamics of grievance politics and their 
impact on democracy. This is in line with the PLEDGE Horizon Europe 
project, which is supporting HEPP6, where, for example, PI Mikko Salmela 
has advanced his theorization of ressentiment as “sour grapes” in 
connection to populism.

We invite submissions that explore a diverse range of themes, reflecting 
our ongoing work and recently completed projects, well beyond PLEDGE. We 
are excited about methodological innovations that, for example, combine 
discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis with computational 
methods, including those that make use of LLMs and AI. This includes our 
EP election study, which gathered an extensive dataset of short campaign 
videos from across the political spectrum during the 2024 European 
Parliament elections, capturing not only the data but also the 
experiences of our researchers. Additionally, we encourage participants 
to draw inspiration from HEPPsters’ individual project topics, such as 
discursive constructions of war in political rhetoric and imaginaries of 
sexuality and gender in culture politics and activism.

Our past research has delved into (de)radicalization, societal 
resilience in transatlantic contexts post-COVID-19, and the interplay of 
time, space, and memory in populist movements. Notably, Emilia Palonen's 
recently published book, The Birth and Death of Liberal Democracy in 
Hungary, critically proposes a framework for the study of the logic and 
dynamics of populist politics and hegemony while analysing the evolution 
of Hungary's political landscape. This also opens the door to 
discussions of democratic resilience, autocratisation, and polarisation 
in all of its forms. We encourage applicants to consider these themes 
and other related topics as we strive to foster a rich dialogue at our 
conference.

We welcome contributions from political science, media and communication 
studies, social psychology, history, anthropology, sociology, memory 
studies, gender studies, urban studies, and other related fields. 
Traditionally, HEPP conferences have featured discussions on 
semi-peripheral regions such as the Global South and East Central 
Europe, and we hope to continue that this year. We also invite papers 
addressing ongoing conflicts, such as those in the Middle East, Ukraine, 
Ethiopia, Sudan, and Venezuela. HEPP6 invites papers and panels on the 
following and other related themes:

Affects, a(nta)gonism, and political polarisation
Audiovisual political communication
Authoritarianism and illiberalism
Climate, crises, and grievances
Cultural populism, conspiracy theories, and misinformation
Emotional mechanisms of grievance and populist politics
Gender and intersectional positions in populism and polarisation
Grievance politics and the politics of victimhood
Hegemony, common grounds, and epistemic populisms
LLM and computational methods in large social media data on HEPP themes
Mediatised populism
Memory politics and the political (mis)use of time and space
Political frontiers and “us” building
Political humour and populist rhetoric
Political theory of populism
Populist challenges to democracy
Populist logics and dynamics
Post- and de-colonialism
Religion and populism
Tribalism, nationalism, and racism
Vulnerability, stigmatisation and self-representation
War and violent conflict

After the conference, presenters are invited to submit their papers to 
be considered for the 5th volume of the HEPP Working Papers series.

We always aim to cultivate a friendly, fun atmosphere at the HEPP 
conferences. To this end, we seek to gather international researchers at 
all career stages from a variety of fields to engage in conversation 
around our critical areas of interest.

The conference is organised in collaboration with the PLEDGE Horizon 
Europe project and is co-funded by the European Commission. Views 
expressed here only reflect the views of the conference organising team, 
not the position of the European Commission.

Important dates and submission details:

HEPP6 will take place on 18-20 May 2026 at the University of Helsinki 
and online (as with previous conferences, HEPP6 will be fully hybrid).

The deadline for paper and panel submission has been extended to 7 
November 2025.

Paper submissions should include:

A paper title
A 200-word abstract (max 1000 characters)
Five keywords answering the paper’s topic, method, theory, data, country 
case (if applicable)
We further encourage the submission of panel proposals comprising three 
to five papers with a panel chair. Please include the abstract of the 
panel and paper abstracts according to the description above.

You can find the CfP and submission links at this address: 
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/emotions-populism-and-polarised-politics-media-and-culture/call-papers

Please note: we do not provide funding for travel or accommodation. You 
can find the conference fees at this address: 
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/conferences/emotions-populism-and-polarised-politics-media-and-culture/registration-fees

For further information, you can reach the conference secretary at 
(hepp /at/ helsinki.fi)

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