My guests today are the political science power couple Maria Sobolewska and Rob Ford, who are both Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester in the UK. Maria works on the political integration and representation of ethnic minorities in Britain and abroad as well as on public perceptions of ethnicity, immigrants, and integration. Rob works broadly in the areas of public opinion, electoral choice, and party politics. Together they published the book Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics with Cambridge University Press in 2020, which won the prestigious WJM Mackenzie Prize of the Political Studies Association. You can follow Maria Sobolewska on Twitter at @ProfSobolewska and Rob Ford at @robfordmancs. 

Ever since President Biden referred to “MAGA Republicans” as “semi-fascists”, the previously shunned F-word has become the omnipresent. At the same time, Christian nationalism has also become broadly used. Today, I will talk about fascism in general, and its relationship to Christianity in particular, which Richard Steigmann-Gall. Richard is an Associate Professor of History at Kent State University, former Director of the Jewish Studies Program, and a specialist of historical fascism, in particular its relationship to Christianity. In 2003, he published The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 with Cambridge University Press. In the past years he has also explored fascism and religion in the contemporary period, including in the US. The perfect guest, therefore, to explore these current debates. You can follow Richard Steigmann-Gall on Twitter at @Notorious_RSG. 

My guest today, for this ninth episode in the Special Election Series, and the first covering a non-European election, is Malu Gatto. Malu is an Associate Professor of Latin American Politics at the Institute of the Americas at University College London. She is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her work explores questions about political behavior, representation, policy-making, and gender and politics with a regional focus on Latin America, especially Brazil. Today, we will discuss the context, results, and consequences of the Brazilian presidential elections, which were held on October 2nd and 30th this year. You can follow her on Twitter at @MaluGatto.

My guest today is Kim Lane Scheppele. Kim is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University. Her work focuses on the intersection of constitutional and international law, particularly in constitutional systems under stress. After 1989, she studied the emergence of constitutional law in Hungary and Russia, living in both places for extended periods. Over the last decade, she has become one of the most prominent and insightful critics of Viktor Orbán’s rule in Hungary. Today, we will talk about democratic erosion, EU laxness, and the Frankenstate. You can follow Kim Lane Scheppele on Twitter at @KimLaneLaw.

My guest today is Tessel Middag. Tessel is a professional soccer player for Rangers FC in Glasgow, Scotland, as well as an international for the Dutch women national team. She studied history at the University of Amsterdam, where she also researched the history of women soccer in the Netherlands. In 2017 she was the first Dutch player to join the NGO Common Goal. Today we will talk about politics and women soccer. You can follow Tessel Middag on both Instagram and Twitter at @tesselmiddag.

My guest today, for this eight episode in the Special Election Series, is Giulia Sandri. Giulia is an Associate Professor of Political Science at ESPOL at the Catholic University of Lille in France. Her main research interests are digital politics, comparative politics, quality of democracy and political behavior. She has also written extensively on Italian electoral and party politics. Notably, she co-edited the special issue “Politics in Italy 2022: The Year of Mario Draghi” for the journal Contemporary Italian Politics. Today, we will discuss the context, results, and consequences of the Italian parliamentary elections that were held on September 25. You can follow Giulia Sandri on Twitter at @SandriGiulia.

My guest today is Elizaveta Gaufman. Lisa is Assistant Professor of Russian Discourse and Politics in the Department of European Languages and Politics of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Her research focuses on the exploration of verbal and visual enemy images through big data analysis. Lisa has worked a lot on nationalism and security in the post-Soviet space, including in Russia and Ukraine, and is currently involved in collaborative research on music and politics in Russia, which will be the main topic of this conversation. You can follow Lisa Gaufman on Twitter at @Lisas_Research. 

My guest today, for this seventh episode in the Special Election Series, is Nicholas Aylott. Nick is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Södertörn University in Sweden. His main academic interests are in comparative European politics, in particular political parties. Today, we will discuss the context, results, and consequences of the Swedish parliamentary elections that were held on September 11. You can find more information about Nichols Aylott on, or perhaps better through, his rather minimalistic webpage at www.nicholasaylott.net and you can follow him on Twitter at @nicholasaylott.

My guest today is Luisa Turbino Torres. Luisa is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and the Center for Women, Gender & Sexuality at Florida Atlantic University. Earlier this year she defended her PhD thesis, entitled “The Politics of Being a Soccer Fan: An Ethnographic Perspective on Feminist Action Around Soccer in Brazil”, at the University of Delaware. Today, we will talk about gender and soccer fandom in Brazil. You can follow Luisa Turbino Torres on Twitter at @turbinotorres. 

My guest today is Christophe Jaffrelot, a CERI-CNRS Senior Research Fellow who teaches in three different schools at Sciences Po in Paris. He is a world-leading scholar of Indian politics, from its foreign policy to its political sociology. In 2020, he was elected president of the French Association of Political Science (AFSP), and last year, he published the incredibly detailed but still very readable book Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy with Princeton University Press. Today, we will speak about this terrifying study of contemporary India. You can follow Christophe Jaffrelot on Twitter at @jaffrelotc.