Researching the Far Right in Times of Anti-Genderism and Democratic Backsliding – Methodological and Ethical Challenges

Abstract

As far-right politics gain prominence across the world, researchers examining the entities pursuing these face increasing pressures and challenges in doing their work safely. Far-right entities regularly attack academics, universities, and expertise as such, based on conspiratorial claims that position the academy as some sort of enemy inside. These attacks have taken the form of harassment and intimidation of individual scholars, the defunding of projects with the ‘wrong’ key words, and the banning of entire study programmes. The present panel addresses the methodological and ethical challenges in researching the far right in a broader context of ascending authoritarianism, informed by the growing body of literature on methods and ethics in scholarship focused on the far right. It does so by embracing a gendered lens, either through an understanding of the overlap and exchange between the far right and so-called ‘anti-gender’ mobilizations, and the complex role of gendered identities in conducting research on the far right and particularly its masculinist, anti-feminist, anti-queer and transphobic ideology. The panel includes papers that offer critical insights into the role of positionality, epistemic injustice, and emotional labour in researching anti-gender and masculinist actors, alongside analyses focused on the role of institutions and ethics boards in the protection of researchers. Overall, the panel offers a range of critical reflections on the position of researchers in today’s political climate, particularly in situations where researchers become the target of the far-right entities they study.

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