ECHOES OF FASCISM 

Martina Salvante & Louisa Toxvaerd Munch
in conversation

 Ideas Festival  / Sun 22 Nov / 11:30 am - 1 pm

Fascism is not a closed chapter of the twentieth century. Its themes of national decline, restored greatness, anxious masculinity and the promise of belonging keep returning in new forms. What made these ideas attractive then, and why do they resonate again now?

Historian Martina Salvante and critical theorist Dr Louisa Toxværd Munch bring their perspectives to the question. Together they will explore how feelings of loss, precarity and resentment can be turned into support for authoritarian politics. They will also ask what history can and cannot tell us about the present, and what it takes to build the critical, informed citizenry that democracy relies on.

Join us for an in-depth conversation and bring all your questions.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Martina Salvante is a historian of fascism, gender, and disability based in the UK, where she has taught and researched at the Universities of Warwick and Nottingham. She also serves on the editorial board of Genesis, Italy's journal of women's and gender history. Her teaching centres on helping students progressively take ownership of their learning through interaction, carefully scaffolded knowledge, and critical thinking. A fierce advocate for the humanities, she argues that the real question is not how students can master AI, but whether universities can still teach them to think for themselves.

Louisa Toxvaerd Munch is a Danish critical theorist, writer, and educator whose work examines nostalgia, historical consciousness, and the political conditions enabling the resurgence of the far right. A PhD researcher and teacher at the University of Warwick, she brings critical theory to a broad public audience through writing, lectures, and social media. Drawing on Arendt, hooks, and Freire, she champions education as a democratic safeguard against manufactured ignorance. She is the author of the forthcomingGlitch: How to Think in a Time of Monsters(Allen Lane/Penguin), which reframes societal breakdowns as sites of resistance and collective agency.