Date: 20 March 2025
Abstract:
This webinar focuses on the themes and issues in Part III of The Ethics of Researching the Far Right: The Haunting Past: Memory and Far Right Studies. In this webinar, the contributors consider how collective memory and heritage are appropriated and mobilised by the far right in order to project their ideologies across history. They reflect, further, on the ethical obligation of archaeologists, historians, social scientists, and heritage workers to recognise the political nature of their research, to debunk the far-right’s narratives of past and present, and to condemn white supremacy across history. At a time when research in the field is increasingly presentist, they demonstrate that we must absolutely engage with wider historical contexts if we are to understand the current resurgence of far right movements and parties. The contributions look at and reflect on these issues in relation to the politics of the field, research methods and, crucially, their identities and experiences as researchers.
This webinar is moderated by Aaron Winter, who is both a contributor to the book and co-editor of the MUP series it is in.
Video:
Speakers:
Lorna Richardson is Lecturer in Digital Media and Cultures in the School of Media, Language and Communication Studies at UEA, but originally trained and worked as an archaeologist. Her research explores the use of academic knowledge by non-experts, in fields as diverse as archaeology, far-right literature and women’s health communities. She is particularly interested in the multitude of ways that expert archaeological knowledge is repurposed to support alternative or discredited ideas.
Daniel Jones is the Searchlight Archivist and Associate Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton where he completed his PhD in 2021. His research largely covers three areas: The history of the Far Right and Antifascism in Britain and elsewhere, The ethics and practice of using extreme archives/materials for research and teaching, and the use of print or media cultures to construct and transmit identity within radical groups. He has published his research in a number journals including the Journal of Language and Politics and Journal for Deradicalization, as well as edited collections such as The Ethics of Researching the Far Right, Visualising Far-Right Environments: Communication and the Politics of Nature, and ‘Tomorrow Belongs to Us’: The British Far Right Since 1967.
Meghan Tinsley is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Manchester. Her research sits at the intersection of nationalism, postcolonial and decolonial thought, and the memory of empire. She is the author of Commemorating Muslims in the First World War Centenary: Making Melancholia(Routledge, 2022) and co-editor of The Ethics of Researching the Far Right (Manchester, 2024). Her work has also been published in journals includingIdentities, Critical Sociology, Current Sociology, Ethnic & Racial Studies, and Postcolonial Studies.She is co-convenor of the British Sociological Association’s Postcolonial and Decolonial Transformations Study Group, and is a member of the editorial boards of Sociology and The Sociological Review.
Webinar series:
The Webinar series on Researching the Far Right: Methods and Ethics discusses the methodological, ethical, political, personal, practical and professional issues and challenges that arise when researching far-right politics. For this new edition, the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX – University of Oslo) has the great privilege of collaborating with the Reactionary Politics Research Network (RPRN – University of Bath) and the Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities (CASEI – Lancaster University) to discuss researching the far right from a more critical perspective. The topics addressed in the webinars will be based on the volume ‘The Ethics of Researching the Far Right: Critical Approaches and Reflections’ (Manchester University Press – Racism, Resistance and Social Change series), edited by Antonia Vaughan, Joan Braune, Meghan Tinsley, and Aurelien Mondon.