Gwenaëlle Bauvois, PhD

Researcher
University of Helsinki

Visiting Fellowship 2025/26 (April 1, 2026 – May 4, 2026)

Gwenaëlle Bauvois holds a PhD in Sociology and works as a researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her research focuses on extremism, far-right, populism, conspiracy theories, countermedia, and anti-immigration and anti-gender movements. Gwenaëlle Bauvois is part of the Horizon research consortium ‘Analysis and Responses to Extremist Narratives’ (ARENAS). She co-wrote the report Historical roots of extremist narratives in Europe (2024) focusing on anti-gender narratives. She is currently working on a report on extremist narratives in parliaments in Europe, in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary History. She serves as an expert in the EU Knowledge Hub on Prevention of Radicalisation (Thematic Panel 1, Ideologies and Conspiracy Narratives). She is affiliated with the HEPP Helsinki Hub on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation and RADIA – the Finnish Knowledge Center for the Prevention of Violent Radicalisation and Extremism. She also serves on the boards of ETMU – The Society for the Study of Ethnic Relations and International Migration, and the European Sociological Association Research Network 15 on Global, Transnational and Cosmopolitan Sociology. Internationally, she has been a visiting researcher at Stanford University and the Australian National University. Her work has been published internationally, including in Emotions and Society, Sociological Inquiry, and Discourse, Context & Media. She also teaches master’s courses on populist mobilization, media, and polarization at the University of Helsinki.

Statement of interest

This fellowship represents an exciting opportunity to strengthen collaboration with colleagues at the Institute of Contemporary History, building on our joint work on both the historical foundations and contemporary circulation of extremist narratives in Europe. It will also allow me to gain a more in-depth understanding of Slovenia’s historical and societal context, directly enriching our shared research. I am deeply grateful for the chance to work alongside leading experts in political and social history and to further develop my multidisciplinary approach, connecting historical insights with contemporary sociopolitical analysis.

Selected publications

Bauvois, G., & Jareño Gila, C. (in press). El colectivo Némésis: la venganza de las feministas de extrema derecha. Ensambles.
Bauvois, G., & Jareño Gila, C. (2024). Historical roots of anti-gender narratives in Europe. In S. Forti (Ed.), Historical roots of extremist narratives in Europe. Zenedo https://zenodo.org/records/14025605
Bauvois, G., & Pyrhönen, N. (2022). In search of unexpected allies? Radical right remediation of ‘the 2015 refugee crisis’ on social media. In Europe in the age of post-truth politics: Populism, disinformation, and the public sphere. Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-13694-8
Bauvois, G., Pyrhönen, N., & Pyysiäinen, J. (2022). Underdogs shepherding the flock—Discursive outgrouping of the internal enemy in action. In The far-right discourse of multiculturalism in intergroup interactions: A critical discursive perspective. Palgrave Macmillan. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-89066-7_3
Pyrhönen, N., & Bauvois, G. (2019). Conspiracies beyond fake news: Producing reinformation on presidential elections in the transnational hybrid media system. Sociological Inquiry. https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12339
Ylä-Anttila, T., Bauvois, G., & Pyrhönen, N. (2019). Politicization of migration in the countermedia style: A computational and qualitative analysis of populist discourse. Discourse, Context & Media. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211695819301229