This webinar will focus on the themes and issues in Part IV of The Ethics of Researching the Far Right: Care and safety. Researching the far right involves emotional and safety risks, including the emotional toll of exposure to violent content and the possibility of being harassed and threatened by far-right actors. The authors presenting here will consider harm, risk, and care in reference to the researchers themselves, the community and the participants. They interrogate practices of care and safety throughout the research process, and the particular structures of evaluating and managing harm. In particular, they will discuss intersectionality and the risk of threats and harassment, the challenges of individualizing self-care, and the reconciliation of a feminist ethic of care when studying the far right. The speakers will discuss and reflect on these issues using examples on their research and personal experiences conducting it.

The webinar will be moderated by Audrey Gagnon (University of Ottawa).

The panel will include:

Tamta Gelashvili is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Oslo, affiliated with the Center of Research on Extremism (C-REX). Her doctoral research focuses on far-right social movements in hybrid regimes, with a focus on Georgia and Ukraine. Her research interests include nationalism, social movements, and far-right protest and violence. Her work has been published in Europe-Asia Studies, East European Politics, Feminist Media Studies, Eurasian Geography and Economics, and Territory, Politics, Governance.

Iris B. Segers is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Gender Research (STK) and the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo. Her research focuses on far-right politics of knowledge, anti-trans and anti-gender mobilization, threats and harassments against academics, and methodological and ethical challenges in research on the far right.

Kayla Preston is a PhD candidate in the department of sociology at the University of Toronto. Her areas of interest include student activism, gender, political sociology, and race. Currently, Kayla is conducting research on youth activism in Canada and the United States. Broadly, she is interested in why and how young people (aged between 18-36) decide to get involved in social and political organizing. She has published research in Canadian Review of Sociology, Current Sociology, Men and Masculinities, New Media & Society, Postcolonial Studies and the Journal of Critical Race Inquiry.

Luc S. Cousineau is the Co-Director of Research at the Canadian Institute for Far-Right Studies and an instructor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Dalhousie University. His work focuses on the intersections of masculinities, technologies, and power, and the influences of far-right masculinism on social structures and youth.