University of Sydney

Graduate Student, Government and International Relations

Other Affiliations: University of Sydney, Sydney Democracy Initative
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung - WZB, Civil Society, Conflicts and Democracy

PhD Candidate

Thesis Title: Rethinking Contemporary Populism: Populism as a Political Style

About

Benjamin Moffitt is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Government & International Relations and the Sydney Democracy Initiative at the University of Sydney. He is the holder of an Australian Postgraduate Award and University of Sydney Merit Award.

He is currently working on his doctoral thesis, which explores the complex relationship between contemporary populism and democracy from the intersection of political theory and political sociology. It puts forward a new conception of populism as a distinct 'political style', and draws on cross-regional cases from Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Oceania.

His research interests include:
* Populism
* Contemporary political and social theory
* Democratic theory
* Representation
* Political sociology
* Postmarxist theory (particularly Laclau, Mouffe & Žižek) and post-hegemonic theories

Benjamin is the winner of the 2010 Australian Political Studies Association Best Postgraduate Paper, and is a former Teaching Fellow at the University of Sydney.

He spent Jan-Feb 2011 as a visiting research scholar at the WZB - Social Science Research Centre, Berlin (http://www.wzb.eu/default.en.asp).

He completed his undergraduate studies in Sociology and Communication & Cultural Studies at the University of Wollongong, where he graduated with Honours (First Class) and was awarded both the University Medal and the Chancellor Robert Hope Memorial Prize. His Honours thesis was entitled 'We Grew Here, You Flew Here: The Politics of National Identity in the Cronulla Riots'.

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