Kent Law School Lecturer Dr Rose Parfitt spoke about ‘Fascism, Law and the Space in Between’ when invited to deliver a keynote lecture for the 43rd International History of Art Colloquium held in Guadalajara.
Dr Parfitt’s talk, delivered last Wednesday, was one of three ‘magisterial lectures’ in a four-day conference focusing on ‘Lógicas de dominación y resistencia’ (Logics of Domination and Resistance). The conference was hosted at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and organised by the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas (Institute of Aesthetic Investigation) in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Jalisco.
Dr Parfitt has also been critically reflecting on fascism and law for a new series of ‘reflections’ she has been invited to guest edit for the Third World Approaches to International Law Review (TWAILR). In her introduction for the series, titled ‘Fascism and the International: The Far-Right, the Global South and the International Legal Order, Dr Parfitt says: ‘…themes will include the legal dynamics of the Italian Empire (fascism’s longest-running imperial project); the role of fascism in post-colonial theory and the implications for international legal scholarship; the relationship between the contemporary far-right and Europe’s internal imperial projects; the past and present of fascism in regions such as South Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and South-East Asia, in states including Mexico, Indonesia, Syria, and beyond.’ The series stems from an existing collaborative research project led by Dr Parfitt called ‘Fascism and the International Project’.
In her own ‘reflection’ for the series, ‘Is this (Brazilian) Fascism? The Far-Right, the Third World and the Wrong Question’, Dr Parfitt examines the questions commentators are asking in response to the rise of Bolsonarismo and the global ‘new right’, pinpointing their inbuilt assumptions and consequences for the Global South.
Other contributors to the series include Luís Bogliolo and Fabia Fernandes Carvalho Veçoso, both from Melbourne Law School. (Luis Bogliolo came to Kent last year as part of a Doctoral Exchange Programme between the two law schools, co-ordinated by Dr Parfitt.)
Dr Parfitt teaches undergraduate law in the areas of Public Law and International Humanitarian Law at Kent Law School. Her latest book The Process of International Legal Reproduction: Inequality, Historiography, Resistance (Cambridge University Press, 2018) is due to be launched soon at an event to be hosted by New York University.