Théo Aiolfi

Théo Aiolfi
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University of Burgundy | UB · Centre Interlangues: Texte, Image, Langage (TIL)

PhD in Politics and International Studies
Junior Professor

About

19
Publications
8,484
Reads
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57
Citations
Introduction
After obtaining my PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Warwick and a Marie Curie COFUND postdoctoral fellowship at CY Cergy Paris University, I now work as a junior professor at the University of Burgundy. My interdisciplinary research bridges political science, communication studies and performance studies, exploring the concept of populism as a political style. Empirically, I focus on far-right politicians, with a specialty on French politics.
Additional affiliations
October 2023 - present
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Position
  • Visiting Researcher
Education
September 2017 - August 2021
University of Warwick
Field of study
  • Politics and International Studies / Theatre and Performance Studies

Publications

Publications (19)
Article
This article consolidates the emerging discursive-performative paradigm in populist studies by presenting the idea of populism as an aesthetic transgression, bridging the gap between discursive and sociocultural-performative strands. The article is broadly inspired by Jacques Rancière’s notion of aesthetics as the ‘partage du sensible’ and critical...
Book
Full-text available
Through a comparative case study analysing the 2016 and 2017 presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen, The Populist Style examines the links between far-right ideology and populism. Adopting an interdisciplinary framework combining political science and performance studies, this book develops a critical definition of populism as a s...
Article
Full-text available
Despite its versatility as a methodological tool, discourse analysis suffers from a logocentric bias, a tendency to primarily focus on text while ignoring the non-textual components of discourse. Although poststructural approaches to discourse analysis like Discourse Theory (DT) have developed an understanding of discourse going beyond language, th...
Article
Full-text available
The French far right has historically been torn between two strategies which were opposed during the 2022 presidential campaign, a modernist line who was embodied by Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National and a traditionalist line who was represented by Éric Zemmour’s Reconquête. This article specifically examines the way the differences between th...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
While much has been recently written about anti-populism from a discursive perspective (Stavrakakis 2017; Galanopoulos & Venizelos 2021; Markou 2021) and the unique theatricality of populism from a stylistic perspective (Moffitt 2016; Aiolfi 2022), there has been scant work connecting these two areas of critical scholarship on populism, with a few...
Chapter
Among the various perspectives developed to engage with populism, the stylistic approach offers a unique set of tools to capture the repertoire of populist communication. This chapter makes the case for this critical and interdisciplinary perspective at the intersection of political science and performance studies, showcasing the specific form popu...
Chapter
This interdisciplinary volume offers new insights into the connections between populism and performance. As a driving force of the contemporary left, populist logic offers a way for progressive politics to radicalize actions against the elite, fostering greater democratization of societies at a time of socio-political, sanitary and environmental cr...
Book
Performing Left Populism, edited by Goran Petrović Lotina and Théo Aiolfi, offers new insights into the connections between populism and performance. As a driving force of the contemporary left, the populist logic offers a way for progressive politics to radicalise actions against the elite, fostering greater democratisation of societies at a time...
Chapter
This interdisciplinary volume offers new insights into the connections between populism and performance. As a driving force of the contemporary left, populist logic offers a way for progressive politics to radicalize actions against the elite, fostering greater democratization of societies at a time of socio-political, sanitary and environmental cr...
Article
In this postcard written for a special issue entitled "Martial Arts Revisited", I use my experience as a black-belt aikidoka practitioner to consider the use in performance studies of learning the fundamentals to leave the script behind.
Article
Full-text available
As a consequence of its performative turn, the critical literature on populism has dedicated increasing attention to its sociocultural and stylistic features. Among the most prominent concepts underpinning this approach is the notion that populism relies on the “flaunting of the low” or the use of “bad manners.” This article engages in an extensive...
Preprint
As a consequence of its performative turn, the critical literature on populism has dedicated increasing attention to its socio-cultural and stylistic features. Among the most prominent concepts underpinning this approach is the notion that populism relies on the "flaunting of the low" or the use of "bad manners". This article engages in an extensiv...
Conference Paper
Even among the various Latin American leaders associated with populism, Jair Bolsonaro stands out as one of the most abrasive and extreme examples of the phenomenon. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective that conceptualises populism as a performed political style, this paper will engage with the specific practices and performances deployed by B...
Article
Full-text available
Book review for "Populism", written by Benjamin Moffitt (2020) "Newsletter of the Populism Specialist Group Political Studies", Issue 3 – February 2021 https://psapopulism.org/2021/02/02/our-third-newsletter-is-out/
Chapter
Full-text available
As an essentially contested concept, populism has yet to reach an academic consensus regarding its definition. Following Moffitt’s approach and enriching it with the insights of performance studies, this chapter will develop the concept of performances of urgency and apply it to the concept of crisis. While many scholars assume that populist partie...
Article
Full-text available
Book review for "Performing Antagonism: Theatre, Performance & Radical Democracy", coedited by Tony Fisher and Eve Katsouraki (2017) (European Journal of Theatre and Performance 1(1))
Article
Full-text available
The scholarly discipline of International Relations (IR) was deeply shaped by the ‘Fourth Great Debate’ which opposed neo-positivist approaches, firmly rooted within a ‘scientific’ conception of analyzing global politics, and post-positivist approaches, that challenged the very notion of science and the possibility to reach objectivity in internati...

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