Book launch and talk

All are warmly invited to the launch of a new book by School of SSESW academic Dr Ulrike Vieten (Sociology), co-authored with Scott Poynting (Queensland University of Technology, Australia). The book is entitled Normalization of the Global Far Right; Pandemic Disruption?

Presenter Dr Ulrike Vieten:
In this talk I will introduce some of the core arguments of my recent book (co-authored with Scott Poynting) Normalization of the Global Far Right; Pandemic Disruption? (2022) while focusing on the second chapter. The underlying argument of the book as well as of this chapter is that the boundary between extremist racist perspectives and ‘normal’ entitlement discourses, the latter be regarded as anchored in majority claims and exercised through territorialized democratic rights (e. g. voting), is blurred. First, I will scrutinize the ‘normalization’ of liberal and ‘queer’ modes of lifestyle alongside binary gender regimes while also introducing the notion of ‘normalization’ we use in the book. More recent discussions of ‘homonationalism’ (Puar, 2007) and ‘femonationalism’ (Farris, 2017) are of interest here. Second, I will critically assess the terminology of ‘toxic’ (‘toxic masculinity’) against current immigration debates and the prevalence of gendered far right movements in some European countries. In what ways could the analysis of these normalization processes help to make sense of the emergence of xenophobic populist developments in Ireland, too, and the troubling lack of alternative and inclusive visions of social solidarity?

Dr Ulrike Vieten is a historical and political sociologist, with an explicit research focus on the construction and shifts of racialised group boundaries, particularly in Europe. She has carried out studies on the multi-layered belonging and identities of minority EU citizens as well as on experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Northern Ireland. She unwrapped racist discourses of mainstream cosmopolitanism in Europe, and since 2016, publishes widely on gender and racist far right populism. As a feminist interested in intersectionality, she takes inspiration from political activism of black and minority scholars across the globe, also being a member of the UK academic-activist group Social Scientists Against the Hostile Environment (SSAHE).