Event Date: 15 – 17 May 2019
Richmond University – The American University in London
Queen’s Rd,
Richmond TW10 6JP
The Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right in partnership with Richmond, the American University in London presents:
A Century of Radical Right Extremism: New Approaches
Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right Inaugural Conference
The Centre for the Analysis of the Radical Right, in partnership with Richmond, the American University in London, is hosting its inaugural conference on 15 – 17 May in Richmond, London – looking at a Century of Radical Right Extremism since the formation of Mussolini’s Fasci Italiani di Combattimento, with the keynote given by world-renowned investigative journalist and former Director at SPLC’s Intelligence Project, Mark Potok. The conference examines both historical and contemporary forms of radical right extremism, as well as incorporating practitioner perspectives on this pressing global political issue. Special strands are also be incorporated for Early Career Researchers, including workshops on engaging with the media and publishing, in addition to practice-based roundtable discussions. Multiple panels also specifically feature ECR researchers and themes, including professional development.
Recorded Programme:
Wednesday, 15th May
● Welcome remarks by Professor Matthew Feldman (CARR):
● Sara Khan (Commissioner for Countering Extremism, UK)
● CARR Awards
○ Sunny Hundal Public Engagement Award [with Professor Tamir Bar-On (Tecnologico de Monterrey) and Sunny Hundal (openDemocracy)] ○ Cas Mudde Early Career Scholar Award [with Eviane Cheng Leidig (CARR) and Professor Cas Mudde (University of Georgia)]
Keynote 1: Mark Potok (Southern Poverty Law Center) – Two Americas: The Radical Right, Then and Now
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Parallel sessions x3 [Chairs: Professor Matthew Feldman (CARR) / Dr Archie Henderson (CARR) / Eviane Cheng Leidig (CARR)]
Fascism in Central and Eastern Europe in the inter-war years:
● Kristina Deskar (University of Liverpool) – The Role of the Catholic Church in the Independent State of Croatia
● Blasco Sciarrino (Central European University) – Radical-Right Romanian Great War Veterans and their Transnational Influences, 1920-1939
● Dr Roland Clark (University of Liverpool) – Images of Crisis in Right-Wing Discourses of Interwar Romania
● David Swoboda (Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes) – The Ideology of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Panel Questions:
Religion, celebrity and the radical right:
● Professor Dominic Alessio and Dr Robert Wallis (Richmond University) – The Appropriation of Norse Religion by the New Right
● Peter Paine (King’s College London) – The Fashion of Faith in the Ukrainian Far Right
Panel Questions:
Post-Digital Cultures of the Far Right. Online Actions and Offline Consequences:
● Cynthia Miller-Idriss (CARR) – What Makes a Symbol Far Right? Co-Opted and Missed Meanings in Far-Right Iconography
● Dr Marc Tuters (University of Amsterdam) – LARPing & Liberal Tears. Irony, Belief and Idiocy in the Deep Vernacular Web
● Kaja Marczewska (University of Coventry) – Zine Publishing and the Polish Far Right
● Julia Ebner (Institute for Strategic Dialogue) – Counter-Creativity. Innovative Ways to Counter Far-Right Communication Tactics
Panel Questions:
Thursday, 16th May
Keynote 2: Professor Cas Mudde (University of Georgia) – The Study of the Far Right: Challenges from the Fourth Wave
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Parallel sessions x3 [Chairs: Professor Tamir Bar-On (Tecnologico de Monterrey) / Dr William Allchorn (CARR) / Professor Matthew Feldman (CARR)]
The Italian radical right:
● Dr Cinzia Padovani (University of Loughborough) – The significance of Gender within Fascist social movements: an Ethnographical approach
● Federica Frazzetta (University of Catania) – Not only populist parties: a comparative analysis on CasaPound Italia and Forza Nuova in Italy
● Dr Elisabetta Cassina-Wolff (University of Oslo) – Ideological continuity and political camouflage. The ‘new’ party CasaPound Italia’s fascist origins
Panel Questions:
Does migration spur the rise of the radical right?:
● Dr Maureen Eger (Umeå University) – ‘Last Night in Sweden’: Explaining Perceptions of Immigrants and Crime
● Dr James Downes (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) – Strategic Positioning: Center Right and Radical Right Party Competition over Immigration during the 2015-2018 European Refugee Crisis
● Dr Mette Wiggen (University of Leeds) – Whatever happened to equality, solidarity and tolerance in Scandinavia?
Panel Questions:
Offline/Online: from hate crimes to memes:
● Sadie Chana (University of Kent) – Anti-Muslim hate: The wider experience
● Dr Louie Dean Valencia-Garcia (Texas State University) – Refreshing and Reloading the ‘Reconquest’: The Radical Right, El Cid, and Alternative and Cyclical History in the Digital Age
Panel Questions:
Parallel session x3 [Chairs: Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss (CARR) / Eviane Cheng Leidig (CARR) / Dr Archie Henderson (CARR)]
Radical right, social liberalism? From feminism to eco-fascism:
● Dr Miranda Christou (University of Cyprus) – The benign feminism of an extreme right-wing party
● Balsa Lubarda, (Central European University) – Towards a ‘Green kingdom’: radical right environmentalism in Hungary
Panel Questions:
The radical right in post-Soviet Europe:
● Julian Göpffarth (LSE) – Activating the socialist past for a nationalist future: Far-right intellectuals and the prefigurative power of multidirectional nostalgia in Dresden
● Valery Engel (European Center for Democracy Development, Latvia) – Right-wing radicalism in post-Soviet countries
● Katherine Kondor (University of Huddersfield) – Activists with nothing to protest? Shifts in Hungarian radical right organisations under a radical right government
Panel Questions:
From the Archives: Searchlight and The Historical Radical Right
● Daniel Jones (University of Northampton), Dr Paul Jackson (University of Northampton), Siobahn Hyland (University of Northampton), Searchlight Archive
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Parallel sessions x3 [Chairs: Professor Tamir Bar-On (Tecnologico de Monterrey) / Dr William Allchorn (CARR) / Professor Matthew Feldman (CARR)]
Radical right mobilisation on social media:
● Dr Marc Tuters (University of Amsterdam) – From Brown to Green Hate: The ‘A. Wyatt Mann’ Pseudonym & the American Alternative Right
● Emillie V. de Keulenaar (OI Lab) and Ivan Kisjes (University of Amsterdam) – Tracing intellectual exchanges in the right-wing communities of 4chan/pol/
Panel Questions:
Assessing the role of discourses in the radical and extreme right mileux:
● Liam Liburd (University of Sheffield) – ‘Among the ‘Drawing-room Fascists’: The career of A.K. Chesterton, 1938-1954
● Marta Lorimer (LSE) – Building legitimacy through European discourses: the case of the Front National/Rassemblement National
● Professor Tamir Bar-On(Tecnologico de Monterrey) – Are the Alt Right and French New Right kindred movements?
● Dr Carmen Aguilera-Carnerero (University of Granada) – Competing Legitimation Strategies: A Critical Discourse Analysis of discourse of the radical right in Spain in 2018
Panel Questions:
Masculinity and the radical right:
● Alex DiBranco (Yale University) – Misogynist Frames and Glorification of Violence in Contemporary Male Supremacist Mobilizations
● Professor Robert Tobin (Clark University) – Early Twentieth-Century Masculinism and The Roots of the New Right
● Dr Ov Cristian Norocel (Université Libre de Bruxelles) – Who’s the Angry Snowflake? For an Intersectional Perspective in the Study of Radical Right Populism
Panel Questions:
Friday, 17th May
Keynote 3: Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss (CARR) – Mainstreaming the Message
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Parallel sessions x3 [Chairs: Professor Cynthia Miller-Idriss (CARR) / Dr William Allchorn (CARR) / Professor Tamir Bar-On (Tecnologico de Monterrey)]
A spectrum of harms? From political violence to the mainstreaming of the radical right:
● Katherine Parsons (American University) – Ideology and Support for Political Violence
● Marc Schwiering (Hans Boeckler Foundation, Research Group on the NSU Trial at Munich Higher Regional Court) – The significance of ancillary suit. The NSU trial at Higher Regional Court of Munich as an example of current deficits in Germany’s response to far-right terrorism
● Dr David Renton (Historian and Barrister, Garden Court chambers) – The New Authoritarians: Convergence on the right
Panel Questions:
Media and the rise of the radical right:
● Dr Julia Rone (Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society) – Why talking about ‘fake news’ misses the point? The sources, topics, and news-sharing patterns of radical right media in Europe
● Maik Fielitz (University of Hamburg) and Holger Marcks (Institute for Peace Research and Security Studies) – Digital Fascism. A Challenge for Academia and the Open Society
● Maximilian Kreter (Hannah Arendt Institute, University of Technology, Dresden) – The White Power Music (WPM) Scene and Right-Wing Terrorism (RWT): The Case of the National Socialist Underground (NSU)
Panel Questions:
The radical right: Direct democracy or threats to democracy?:
● Professor Ralph Schroeder (University of Oxford) – The Radical Right: Globalizing Democracy from Below
● Dr Sebastien Lazardeux (St. John Fisher College) – Radical-Right Populist Movements and the Electoral Dilemma
● Manès Weisskircher (TU Dresden and European University Institute) – The Radical Right in Subnational Government – Radical or Tamed? Evidence from Austria
● Georg Plattner (Vienna) – Frame Appeasement by Governing Parties in the Face of Populist Radical Right Frame Contestation
Panel Questions:
Plenary B: Formers and practitioners [Chair: Professor Matthew Feldman (CARR)]
● Brad Galloway (Organization on Prevention on Violence)
● Nigel Bromage (Small Steps)
Concluding remarks by Professor Matthew Feldman (CARR):