DESIRE has hosted the following scholars: 

Alex Yates
​

University of Bath

Time of stay: May - June 2025
Activities during stay:​

• Presented draft paper 'Taming "the people" in Anti-Populist Discourse: A Frame Analysis' at DESIRE seminar no. 43, 9 May 2025.

Adam Dinsmore
​

University of Bath
​

Time of stay: February - April 2024
Activities during stay:

• ​Held guest lecture in MA course 'Populist and Radical Political Discourses in Europe' by Benjamin De Cleen.
• Presented draft paper 'Complexity & Complication: how left and right constrcut distinct "elites"' at DESIRE seminar no. 34, 22 March 2024.​

Ilija Tomanic-Trivundza

University of Ljubljana
​

Time of stay: December 2023 - February 2024
Activities during stay:

• Presented at joint DESIRE-ECHO research seminar 'Looking without seeing: Pictogramisation of photojournalism and the changing nature of eyewitnessing via news photography', 25 January 2024.
• Held PhD Masterclass on visual analysis, 24 February 2024.
• Presented draft paper 'Not minding the paradigmatic gap: Gullible journalism and the failings of liberal responses to illiberalism' at DESIRE seminar no. 31, 8 December 2023.

Théo Aiolfi
​

Université Bourgogne Europe

Time of stay: October 2023 - April 2024
Activities during stay:

• Provided feedback on Gijs Lambrecht's proposal for FWO PhD Fellowship fundamental research.
• Presented draft paper 'When performance studies meet discourse theory. The political performance analysis questionnaire as an interdisciplinary methodological tool' at DESIRE seminar no. 33, 16 February 2024.

Results of stay:

• ​Integrating feedback from DESIRE seminar, published research article 'When performance studies meet discourse theory. The political performance analysis questionnaire as an interdisciplinary methodological tool' in 2025 as part of special issue 'Discourse Theory and the Turn to Practice'.

Jorge
​Ramos-Gonzalez

University of Salamanca
​

Time of stay: March - May 2023
Activities during stay: 

• Participated in PhD Masterclass with Yannis Stavrakakis prior to Discourse Theory: Ways Forward, 2nd Edition conference.
• Participated in Discourse Theory: Ways Forward, 2nd Edition conference. Brussels, 22 March 2023.
• Finalized draft article ‘Sorel’s theory of myth and its influence on Laclau’s theory of populism’.​

Results of stay:

• ​Published research article 'Populism and contingency. Assessing the ideological flexibility of populism through Sorel's Theory of Myth' in 2024.

Samuel Bennett
​

Adam Mickiewicz University

Time of stay: 26 - 28 April 2022
Activities during stay:

• Presented draft paper, ‘Booing as ‘not racism’: Soft hate speech, racism and free speech at Euro 2020’ at DESIRE seminar no. 17, 27 April 2022.
• Presented at joint DESIRE-ECHO seminar ‘Doing Qualitative (Discourse) Analysis on Twitter’, 28 April 2022.
• Held PhD Masterclass ‘Using Digital Methods to research online discourse’, 28 April 2022.

Results of stay:

• Integrating feedback from DESIRE seminar, published research article 'Soft hate speech and denial of racism at Euro 2020' in 2025.

Archibald Gustin
​

Université de Liège
​

Time of stay: March - June 2022
Avtivities during stay: 

• Presented draft PhD chapter, ‘A study of the mainstreaming strategy of far-right parties through the prism of their gender politics’, DESIRE seminar no. 16, 23 March 2022.
• Presented draft PhD Chapter, ‘Revisiting the articulation of nationalism and populism through a gender approach of far-right discourses. The case of the Vlaams Belang’ at DESIRE seminar no. 19, 29 June 2022.

Results of stay:

• Research stay resulted in joint PhD with the Université de Liège from academic year 2022-2023.

Seongcheol Kim
​

University of Kassel
​

Time of stay: 15 - 26 November 2021
Activities during stay:

• Presented draft paper ‘Between Autonomy and Representation: Toward a Post-Foundational Discourse Analytic Framework for the Study of Horizontality and Verticality’ at DESIRE seminar no. 13, 24 November 2021.
• Presented draft book chapter ‘Report on trade unions and workplace representation in Belgium’ at DESIRE seminar no. 13, 24 November 2021.
• Conducted interviews with Flemish trade unions and did expert interview with DESIRE member Benjamin De Cleen.

Results of stay:

• Integrating feedback from DESIRE seminar, published research article ‘Between Autonomy and Representation: Toward a Post-Foundational Discourse Analytic Framework for the Study of Horizontality and Verticality’ in 2022.
• Integrating feedback from DESIRE seminar, published book, ‘The Far Right in the Workplace’, co-written by Samuel Greef and Wolfgang Schroeder.

Omran Shroufi
​

University of York
​

Time of stay: January 2020 - September 2022
Activities during stay:

• Presented draft paper ‘Populists talking about Populism’ with Benjamin De Cleen at DESIRE seminar no. 11, 6 May 2020.
• Presented paper ‘German New Right Discourse about Populism’ with Benjamin De Cleen at 71st PSA Annual International Conference, University of Belfast, 30 March 2021.   
• Presented PhD chapter ‘AfD’s Position towards Israel/Palestine in the 19th Bundestag’ at DESIRE seminar no. 14, 15 December 2021.
• Presented draft paper ‘The emergence of the pro-Israel European Far Right’ at DESIRE seminar no. 19, 26 June 2022.
• Presented paper ‘Far-Right Intellectual Discourse About Populism: A German Case Study and Some Future Avenues for Research’ at 6th Populism Specialist Group (PSA) Workshop, University of Brighton, 23 September 2023.

Results of stay: 

• Published article, ‘Far-right intellectual discourse about populism’ with Benjamin De Cleen in 2021.
• In close cooperation with Benjamin De Cleen, finalised PhD thesis and passed with no corrections in January 2023.
• Worked on and submitted forthcoming book chapter, ‘What the far right is(n’t)’ for the edited book, ‘The ethics of researching the Far Right’.

Marie Tuley
​

University of Sussex
​

Time of stay: September 2018 - August 2019
Activities during stay:

• Presented draft paper 'Migrant Integration Narratives and the (re-)Making of National Identity' at DESIRE seminar no. 5, 13 September 2018.

Joan Miró
​

Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

​Time of stay: March - June 2019
​Activities during stay:

• ​Held guest lecture 'Between populist irruption and institution: the case of Podemos' in MA course 'Populist and Radical Political Discourses in Europe' by Benjamin De Cleen.​
• Presented draft paper 'The tensions of populism in power: a discursive-theoretical analysis of the Catalan secessionist push (2006-2017)' at DESIRE seminar no. 7, 24 May 2019.
• Conducted interviews with EU civil servants as part of PhD thesis.

Results of stay:

• Integrating feedback from DESIRE seminar, published research article ‘The tensions of populism in power: a discursive-theoretical analysis of the Catalan secessionist push (2006-2017)’ in 2020.

Giorgos Katsambekis

Loughborough University

Time of stay: 10 - 16 December 2017
Activities during stay:

• ​Held guest lecture 'Populism and anti-populism in times of crisis' in MA course 'Populist and Radical Political Discourses in Europe' by Benjamin De Cleen.