Dagmar Herzog is an American historian and professor of history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research focuses on the history of sexuality and gender, Holocaust memory, and Jewish-Christian relations in the modern era—as well as the connections between sexual morality, fascism, and violence.

What new insights into the libidinal appeal of various forms of fascism do we gain when we examine sexual politics and disability politics together? And how are the promise of transgressive pleasure linked to eugenic fantasies and deadly malice toward imperfection? Dagmar Herzog’s book Der neue faschistische Körper examines the complex interplay between the past—from the 1890s to the 1930s—and our postmodern present in the 2020s, focusing not only on “sexy racism” and the obsessive hostility toward people with disabilities, but also on the pleasure derived from forced contradictions—all of which have fueled the rise of the AfD.

In her research, Herzog analyzes fascist logics of the body as well as visual strategies that are simultaneously racist and sexually provocative, in order to understand the mechanisms of today’s right-wing extremism.

Event in Cooperation with Departement Geschichte Universität Basel

«Im Kopf von …» is a series of conversations and reflections organized by Werkraum Schöpflin and Kaserne Basel. It invites contemporary thinkers to take us inside their mental landscapes—into their research, doubts, analyses, and hopes. Together, we ask how we can not only hold our ground in a crisis-ridden world, but also take a stance of solidarity and resistance that transcends borders!

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