This webinar will focus on the themes and issues in Part II of The Ethics of Researching the Far Right: Positionality, standpoint, and intersectionality, most notably on how the positionality and standpoint of researchers can impact not only on the field but on wider society. Challenging some positivist approaches which have placed the researcher above their research, as if social sciences could be conducted in the same manner as hard sciences, the authors presenting here argue that our striving for conducting impartial research must start with a clear engagement with our own positionality but also take into account the wider state of play and norms which may invisibilise certain patterns and structures of oppression, including racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, and ablism, as well as the intersection between them. This is also important to understanding why we need to challenge more recent and progressive interventions which focus on researcher risk, but treat the researcher not as objective and outside the research, but instead as a universal subject and potentially equally vulnerable in the fact of the far right and institutions of power. The contributions will 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.

The webinar will be moderated by Aaron Winter (Lancaster) who also authored the chapter: Reflections on researching armed Nazis as an unarmed left-wing Jew: politics, privilege, and practical concerns.