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Benjamin Moffitt

Senior Lecturer & ARC DECRA Fellow, Australian Catholic University
Benjamin Moffitt is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow (2019-2021) at the National School of Arts, ACU (Melbourne). His research is located at the intersection of comparative politics, contemporary political theory and political communications, and focuses on contemporary populism across the globe.

Benjamin joined ACU in 2018. Prior to this, he was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Uppsala University and Stockholm University, Sweden. He received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 2014, and his BA (Hons) from the University of Wollongong. He has been a visiting researcher at the WZB (Berlin Social Science Centre) and University of Toronto, and is an associate of the Sydney Democracy Network and Uppsala University's Department of Government.

Benjamin is the author of 'The Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style and Representation' (Stanford University Press, 2016), and numerous articles and chapters on populism in Australia, New Zealand and Western Europe, as well as the theoretical and media-communicative dimensions of populism. These have appeared in journals including Political Studies and Government & Opposition, and in collections such as The Oxford Handbook of Populism. He is currently writing a book on populism and political theory for Polity's 'Key Concepts in Political Theory' series.

Benjamin is also a frequent commentator in the Australian and international press, and his work has appeared in outlets such as The Economist, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Bloomberg News, The Conversation, the ABC, and the BBC World Service. In 2018, Benjamin was named one of ABC's inaugural Top 5 researchers in Humanities and the Social Sciences in Australia.

What actually is populism? And why does it have a bad reputation?

Feb 06, 2019 23:39 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

No doubt thanks to Donald Trump, Brexit, and a string of anti-establishment leaders and parties in Europe, Latin America and Asia, everyone seems to be talking about populism. But populism is nothing new. Its long...

Economy

RBA Hikes Interest Rate to 4.60% as Inflation Risks Rise

The Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates by 25 basis points on Tuesday, taking borrowing costs to their highest level in nearly 15 years as policymakers respond to persistent inflation and rising energy prices....

Asian Stocks Fall as Bond Yields and Oil Prices Surge

Asian stock markets fell broadly on Tuesday as surging U.S. Treasury yields, elevated oil prices and renewed pressure on technology shares dampened investor sentiment. Markets also awaited the Reserve Bank of Australias...

Asian Currencies Mixed as Yen Weakens, RBA Hike Looms

Asian currencies traded mixed on Tuesday, with the Japanese yen weakening toward recent lows as investors weighed intervention risks and the Bank of Japans policy outlook. The U.S. dollar remained near a two-month high,...

Gold Holds Near Seven-Week Low as Fed Rate Hike Bets Rise

Gold prices stabilized near a seven-week low on Tuesday after plunging 4% in the previous session, as elevated oil prices, rising U.S. Treasury yields and expectations for further Federal Reserve rate hikes continued to...

U.S. Stock Futures Steady as AI, Rate Concerns Weigh

U.S. stock futures were little changed Monday evening after Wall Street fell under pressure from elevated Treasury yields, concerns about slowing artificial intelligence development and persistent geopolitical tensions...

Politics

White House Blames Democrats as CLARITY Act Stalls

The White House and Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis have blamed Senate Democrats for the CLARITY Acts failure to advance, escalating partisan tensions over landmark U.S. cryptocurrency legislation. The Senate voted 49-50...

US Troops Set to Complete Iraq Withdrawal as Iran Influence Grows

US forces are expected to withdraw from their remaining bases in Iraq by Wednesday, completing a departure agreed in 2024 and raising concerns over Irans expanding influence and the potential resurgence of Islamic State....

Malaysia Begins Deportation of 1,500 Myanmar Nationals

Malaysia began deporting about 1,500 Myanmar nationals on Tuesday under a repatriation programme that has drawn objections from the United Nations and human rights organisations over safety concerns in conflict-hit...

Trump Denies Offering Iran Sanctions Relief for Nuclear Concessions

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday denied reports that his administration had offered Iran sanctions relief and access to frozen funds in exchange for concessions on Tehrans nuclear program. This is untrue. I offered...

Rubio Warns Cuba to Change Course as US Pressure Mounts

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington hopes Cuba will pursue a different path, warning that Cuban officials should not expect to simply wait out President Donald Trumps administration without making changes....

Science

Blue Origin New Glenn Explosion Could Delay Launch Operations Until 2028

Blue Origin is facing a significant setback after a dramatic explosion involving its New Glenn rocket severely damaged a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida. According to NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, repairs to the...

Blue Origin New Glenn Rocket Explodes During Launch Pad Test, Delaying Space Ambitions

Blue Origin suffered a major setback after its uncrewed New Glenn rocket exploded during a launch pad test in Florida on Thursday, raising new challenges for Jeff Bezos space company as it competes with Elon Musks SpaceX...

SpaceX Delays Starship V3 Launch Ahead of Potential Record IPO

SpaceX on Thursday postponed the highly anticipated launch of its 12th Starship rocket test from Texas after technical issues interrupted the final countdown. The company now plans to attempt the Starship V3 launch again...

Trump Administration Releases New UFO Files and Apollo Mission Records

The U.S. Defense Department has released dozens of previously classified UFO-related files following an order from President Donald Trump, sparking renewed debate over unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) and government...

China vs. NASA: The New Moon Race and What's at Stake by 2030

The space race is back and this time, its a direct competition between the United States and China for dominance on the lunar surface. NASAs Artemis II mission recently made history when four astronauts flew farther into...

Technology

Anthropic Targets $2 Trillion Valuation in Planned IPO

Anthropic is preparing for a highly anticipated initial public offering that could value the artificial intelligence company at more than $2 trillion, putting investor enthusiasm for the booming AI sector and its massive...

Samsung Invests $1 Billion in KKR’s Helix AI Infrastructure

Samsung Electronics and five affiliates are investing a combined $1 billion in Helix Digital Infrastructure, a new artificial intelligence infrastructure company backed by investment firm KKR, as Samsung expands deeper...

CSL Partners With AWS to Bring AI Into Drug Research

CSL has entered into a partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to integrate artificial intelligence and cloud computing across its research and clinical development operations, aiming to accelerate drug discovery and...

OpenAI Scraps GPT-6.1 Astra Launch Over Safety Concerns

OpenAI has canceled the planned release of GPT-6.1 Astra after internal testing raised concerns about the artificial intelligence models safety, alignment and ability to stay within authorized boundaries. The...

Pi Network Price Holds $0.087 as Protocol 28 Mainnet Upgrade Nears

Pi Network price traded around $0.0886 on September 28 as investors looked ahead to the Protocol 28 Mainnet upgrade scheduled for October 16. PI remained below the key $0.10 level amid broader weakness across the...