Keynotes

HEPP6 will feature two individual keynote speakers: Dr. Noëlle McAfee of Emory University and Dr. Admire Mare of the University of Johannesburg. We will also have two keynote panels, showcasing the PLEDGE Horizon Europe project and addressing two themes central to HEPP: affective politics and digital media. Read on for more info about all four!
Noëlle McAfee

Authoritarianism’s Annihilation Anxieties

This presentation explores the underlying structure of the authoritarian psyche. Rather than being a product of weak ego functioning, as proposed by the authors of The Authoritarian Personality, authoritarianism, I find, occurs in a world where there is no longer any agreed-upon authority. This exacerbates the anxiety that all we creatures born too soon experience: annihilation anxiety, observed in various ways by psychoanalytic thinkers from Melanie Klein to Donald Winniocott to Wilfred Bion. Those who in their development develop capacities for creativity and reflection can manage to channel this anxiety; but those without such capacities, especially in neoliberal times of precarity, are vulnerable to authoritarianism. As a defense, they become brittle, demanding that some authority arise to hold things together. Unable to tolerate any sense of groundlessness, they become authoritarians themselves. To contain their deep foreboding, authoritarian psyches long for certitude, for guardrails, and for suitable targets of externalization. They cannot tolerate anything that is new, different, contingent, or paradoxical, especially around issues of identity and sexuality. The root of authoritarianism, then, is not bravado and bluster but a dread of annihilation.

Dr. McAfee is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the PLEDGE Horizon Europe Project. 
Admire Mare

Keynote speech: Insurgent Movements and Affective Publics: Lessons from Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract coming soon!

Professor Admire Mare specialises in the complex and unpredictable intersections between [media] technology and society with a special attention on global digital journalism studies, disinformation studies, digital diplomacy studies, digital surveillance studies and digital platform studies. He is full Professor of Communication and Media Studies. He is also the Head of Department: Communication and Media Studies at the University of Johannesburg.
Keynote panels
Affective Politics in the Digital Age: EU Parliamentary discourses, Social Media, and Contestations over Truth and Participation

Keynote Speakers 

  • Johanna Kantola – Professor, Centre for European Studies, University of Helsinki ()
  • Admire Mare – Professor, University of Johannesburg ()
  • Emilia Palonen – Associate Professor, University of Helsinki  ()
  • Gabriella Szabó – Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Sciences, ELTE  () 

This keynote panel brings together leading scholars to explore how political communication and advocacy are being transformed in digital media environments across Europe and beyond. The EP election campaign analysis in social media was an important task for PLEDGE and collaborating projects CO3 and MORES, and for the UH-team in the Transatlantic Platform project Endure. This affective brand of politics has also affected parliamentary discussions, making space for emotional politics. The panel engages with how political messages are articulated and amplified through moral emotional discourses of hostility, victimhood and patterns of blame attribution. Focusing on European parliamentary discourses and online campaigning, the panel examines how affective dynamics shape political engagement and participation in digital spaces, addressing issues of gendered power relations, populist discourse, and evolving media ecologies. By highlighting the dual role of affective communication in both mobilizing and polarizing citizens, the panel aims to deepen our understanding of contemporary political landscapes and the implications for democratic practices. 
PLEDGE Spotlight Panel - The Emotional Dynamics of Political Mobilization: From Grievance to Protest and Democratic Innovation

Chair: Mikko Salmela, Senior Researcher in Practical Philosophy and Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki  

Speakers 

  • Tereza Capelos – Professor in Political Psychology, University of Southampton, UK
  • Gavin Sullivan – Professor of Social Psychology, International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin, Germany
  • Gabriella Szabó – Senior Research Fellow, ELTE Centre for Social Sciences (CSS), Budapest, Hungary 
  • Kai Alhanen – Director of Dialogue Academy and researcher in political philosophy, Helsinki, Finland  

Abstract 

This panel brings together leading scholars to examine the dynamic interaction of individual and collective emotions in shaping political mobilization across contemporary societies. Focusing on both anti- and pro-democratic dynamics, the discussion explores how emotions such as anger, fear, resentment, indignation, pride, and hope drive political engagement, from populist movements and protest actions to institutional innovation. The discussion aims to conceptualize politics as increasingly structured by grievance dynamics, in which perceived injustices are transformed into emotionally charged narratives of collective identity and moral positioning. Drawing on insights from the Horizon Europe PLEDGE project, the panel addresses how affective dynamics influence political attitudes, participation, and the emergence of new forms of democratic innovation. The panel pays particular attention to the dual and ambivalent nature of emotions. Under certain emotional configurations, grievances can foster solidarity, democratic participation, and institutional responsiveness. Under alternative configurations, especially those structured by ressentiment and morally righteous victimhood, they may erode trust, deepen polarization, and contribute to anti-democratic tendencies.  NB: This project is funded by the EU Commission. Any views expressed in this panel reflect the views of the speakers and not the official position of the EU.