Nicole Navratil

• Since 2022 PhD student at the International Graduate School Resonant Self-World Relations (University of Graz / University of Erfurt)
• 2021–2022 University assistant (prae-doc) at the Institute for Old Testament Studies (University of Graz)
• 2019–2021 Student assistant at the Institute for Old Testament Studies (University of Graz)
• 2018–2022 Studies ’Grundlagen theologischer Wissenschaft’ (University of Graz) and ‘Evangelisch-Theologische Studien’ (University of Vienna, intercepted due to doctorate)
• 2007–2015 Master’s degree studies in History (University of Graz)
• 2002–2007 Bachelor’s degree studies in Literature and History (University of Bielefeld)
• 1997–1999 French Language Certificates 1st and 2nd level, courses in French Literature and History of Art (Université de la Sorbonne, Paris)

Performing the Nation – and Womanhood? The (Self-)Staging of Female Leaders of Today’s Right-Wing Populist Parties in Europe

In recent years, we have been witnessing a growing success of right-wing political parties in Europe and around the world. Right-wing parties have seats in practically all European parliaments, and some countries are even headed by right-wing populists as Prime Ministers. At the same time, there is a growing number of women heading these parties: female party leaders such as Marine Le Pen, Giorgia Meloni, Alice Weidel, Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, Pernille Vermond, Roberta Metsola, and many others have entered the stage of national and international politics.

Women leaders as ‘faces’ of such parties are part of the aestheticisation and communication strategy of the new far right. Far right actors aim to give their parties a fresh and modern appearance in order to distance themselves from ‘old nationalism’, which is associated with national socialism/fascism, and thus broaden their influence in society and attract new voters. The project thus aims to research the (self-)staging of female leaders of today’s right-wing populist parties in Europe under the lens of gender: how female leaders construct and portray themselves; how gender (or gender role) is staged; which elements are used for this (certain images, practices as well as materiality); how gender images are created, used, or counteracted; and how this all fits into the nationalist gender narrative. To tackle these questions, visual analysis of various visual sources of female leading figures will be conducted.

The project is thus contributing to the research of the recent success and to the deconstruction of the communication strategies of right-wing populist parties and brings research of political aesthetics of the far right and the study of women in right-wing politics together.

Nicole Navratil: „Homophobie und antiwestliche Diskurse. LGBT im Brennpunkt der Identitätskonstruktion der serbischen Nation“, in: Sonja A. Strube, Rita Perintfalvi, Raphaela Hemet, Miriam Metze, Cicek Sahbaz (Hg): Anti-Genderismus in Europa. Allianzen von Rechtspopulismus und religiösem Fundamentalismus. Mobilisierung – Vernetzung – Transformation, Bielefeld 2021.

Irmtraud Fischer, Edith Petschnigg, Nicole Navratil, Angela Berlis and Christiana de Groot (Hg): Die Bibel war für sie ein politisches Buch. Bibelinterpretationen der Frauenemanzipationsbewegungen im langen 19. Jahrhundert (Frauenforschung in Europa), Münster 2020.

„History and Identity – Memory Politics and National Narratives of the Far Right in Europe”, Vortrag, Herbstkonferenz der IGS Resonante Weltbeziehungen The Role of Time in Self-World Relations, Universität Graz, 30. September – 2. Oktober 2024.

„Rechtspopulismus, Fundamentalismus und Anti-Genderismus im politischen und kirchlichen Schlachtfeld in Europa“, Vortrag gemeinsam mit Rita Perintfalvi, Interdisziplinäre SummerAcademy Macht. Impulse und Diskurse, Schloss Neuhaus / Südtirol, 16.–23. August 2023.

„Macht, Gender, Machtmissbrauch – praktisch nachgedacht“, Workshop gemeinsam mit Rita Perintfalvi und Tanja Grabovac, Interdisziplinäre SummerAcademy Macht. Impulse und Diskurse, Schloss Neuhaus / Südtirol, 16.–23. August 2023.

„Mental Mapping and Gendered Imaginations of ‘Europe’ in Transformation Serbia”, Vortrag, Online-Symposium Gender in Transformation Processes: Central and Southeastern European Perspectives Universität Graz, 1. Oktober 2021.

„Homophobie und antiwestliche Diskurse. LGBT+ im Brennpunkt serbischer Identitätskonstruktion“, Vortrag, Online-Symposium Widerstand erforderlich? Identitäts- und Geschlechterkämpfe im Horizont von Rechtspopulismus und christlichem Fundamentalismus in Europa heute, Universität Graz, 14.–16. Oktober 2020. 

Johannes Schiller, Rita Perintfalvi, Edith Petschnigg, Patrick Marko, Nicole Navratil: Religion – Gender – Politik. Biblische Impulse und aktuelle Resonanzen, Universität Graz, 06.–07. Oktober 2022.

Andreas Pettenkofer, Nicole Navratil, Alina Zeller, Vincenzo Cerulli, Rupert Rainer: Indifference, Hostility, Disgust: The Ambiguity of ‘Heimat’, Universität Graz, 20.–22. Oktober 2025.