[Commlist] CFP: Extremist Mythologies

*CALL FOR PAPERS: *

*EXTREMIST MYTHOLOGIES *

**

*WITS CENTRE FOR DIVERSITY STUDIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE *

*14-16 OCTOBER 2025*

*UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA *

The Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS) invites proposals for its 
11^th annual conference, on the subject of ‘Extremist Mythologies’.

Much contemporary scholarship and public conversation are concerned with 
the rise of populism and extremism, their causes as well as their 
consequences. Less attention has been paid to the particular ways in 
which extremist political positions support and mainstream themselves, 
and how they activate sameness and difference as part of their symbolic 
arsenal. Even those extremisms which appear more rational or humane, or 
more in line with our personal belief systems, utilise a conceptual 
scaffolding to maintain their appeal. This interdisciplinary conference 
is interested in the narratives, discourses, symbols, myths and images 
that are pervasive throughout contemporary cultural and political 
polarisation. It aims to ask not just why but also, from a granular 
perspective, how extremism is formed, marketed and transmitted, how it 
attains virality, how it uses myth to foster emotion.

Drawing on the concerns of Diversity Studies, which critically 
interrogates difference and power, scholars, artists and activists are 
invited to submit work along, but not limited to, the following themes:

  * War, dictatorship and violence
  * Scapegoating processes, from poverty to migration
  * Racialisation and race talk
  * Identity politics at extremes
  * The demystification of liberation movements
  * Desirable/undesirable disability
  * Extreme responses to extreme weather
  * Tradwives, slay queens and ‘new’ femininities
  * Defaming and reclaiming trans identity
  * The incelisation of big politics
  * Polygamy, homophobia and conservative family values in Africa
  * Extremist religion, from settler Zionism to prosperity gospels
  * AI, algorithms and the rise of predatory media
  * Dystopian and utopian visions of post/extremist futures

Proposals should include a title, an abstract of 300 words and a brief 
biography. We welcome proposals for panels, and for non-traditional and 
creative responses from artists and performers. Proposals and other 
queries can be sent to 
(conference.wicds /at/ wits.ac.za)<mailto:(conference.wicds /at/ wits.ac.za)>. 
Conference fees will be set on a sliding scale to support attendance 
from students and scholars from the global south. This call closes on 
*30 May 2025*.


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