In January 2025, during the inauguration ceremonies for U.S. President Donald Trump, Elon Musk caused a global stir: standing in front of a cheering crowd, he twice performed a gesture widely interpreted as a Hitler salute. Since then, the incident has become a symbol of an accelerating "global fascisization" (Toscano) in the 21st century.

New concepts such as "late fascism," "post-fascism," and "fascisization" attempt to capture the increasing dynamic of these developements. They offers ways of thinking about new forms of fascist discourse that are no longer organized solely on a national level, but instead take shape within digital spaces and transnational networks, and are characterized by a convergence of neoliberal, technological, and authoritarian power structures.

These discussions raise important question: How do the new fascisms of the 21st century emerge? What spaces do they occupy—digital, political, and social—and how are they, in turn, shaped by those spaces? Furthermore, how do they alter our conceptions of democracy, the public sphere, and coexistence?

Our lecture series invites participants to explore contemporary manifestations of 21st-century fascism as a spatial practice and, with the guidance of our speakers, examine these phenomena through an interdisciplinary lens.