PAIS Podcasts
PAIS Podcasts 2025 - Tom Whelan interviews Dr. Salomé Ietter
13:08, Thu 13 Nov 2025
In this episode PAIS student Thomas Whelan interview Dr Salomé Ietter. Salomé currently works at the University of Glasgow as an early Career Leverhulme Fellow in Sociological & Cultural Studies with her current project entitled "French and British ‘Left Behinds’: Race, Gender, and Class Identity". Before moving she was a Teaching Fellow in Political Theory at PAIS and the Coordinator of MA Student Experience and Progression. She completed her PhD in political theory at Queen Mary University of London with a thesis on anti-populism and the crisis of ‘liberal democracy’. She taught for 5 years at Queen Mary and King’s College London, and am an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.
Salomé and Thomas discuss populism and traces populism’s origins as a progressive movement in late 19th-century America, contrasts this with its modern association with far-right politics, and examines how crises and neoliberalism have fuelled both left- and right-wing populist movements globally. Dr. Ietter argues that populism isn’t inherently anti-democratic and highlights the dangers of anti-populism, which often reinforces elitism and limits democratic agency. The discussion emphasizes the need to engage with grievances driving populism rather than dismissing them.
You can find a transcript of this episode here
(MP3 format, 25 MB)