The emergence of right-wing student associations in current university politics:

the cases of AEFyL (UNCuyo) and Alternativa (UNR)

Abstract

This paper is a first approach to the current phenomenon of right-wing associations in Argentinian public universities. Two case studies are considered: Agrupación Estudiantil por la Formación y el Liderazgo, founded at Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, and Alternativa, which originated at Facultad de Ciencia Política y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad Nacional de Rosario. In order to accurately reconstruct the context of emergence of these associations, we look at specific changes in the relation between politics and youths and how it manifests in universities for the past few decades.  Next, we analyze their social media postings, as well as interviews with their representatives in journalistic media. From these sources, we track these associations’ histories, agendas, and principles. The hypothesis of this paper is that these associations, established in 2018, constitute a direct response to the incorporation and institutionalization of gender and diversity perspectives in public universities. Their links with NGOs will be examined trough the concept of “conservative neo-activism”.