Keynote, ‘Reflections on Researching the Far Right in Reactionary Times’, University of Lincoln, School of Social and Political Sciences Post-Graduate Day, 04/04/2025.

Dr Aaron Winter (Lancaster)

After years of political, media and academic neglect, the far-right is almost inevitable as a focus of attention. If the election of Trump (the first time) and Brexit led many to pay attention, 6 January, last summer’s riots across England, far-right electoral gains in Italy, Hungary, Italy, France and Germany, and the re-election of Trump (acknowledged with a few Nazi salutes and increasingly fascist executive orders) confirmed how mainstreamed, emboldened and significant they are. In response we have seen a proliferation of research and analysis on everything from online radicalisation and terrorism to ‘populism’ and voter behaviour – treating them as both a threat both from the extremist fringes and expression of legitimate concerns from ‘ordinary people’ necessitating different, if not contradictory responses. In this talk, Aaron Winter will reflect on my journey as a researcher working on the far right, reflect the state of the far right and field in the current conjuncture, and discuss some of the conceptual, practical and political challenges, opportunities, problems and pressures it presents for us as researchers and educators, including notably for PGRs and ECRs.