- Which research project are you currently working on the most?
My main research project is “Socially Distanced Solidarity: Far-right recruitment and enrolment during the COVID-19 pandemic” (SODIS), funded by the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship. Initially the goal of the project was to explore how pandemic measures in various countries impacted recruitment and enrolment to far-right organizations. After conducting a few interviews, however, my interest shifted to the influence of the pandemic on far-right conspiracy theories, as all respondents discussed them in one way or another.
- What other research projects are you involved in?
I’m incredibly lucky with this fellowship as the MSCA emphasizes building a career for early career researchers, meaning it allows me to collaborate with others and discover new areas of interest. Because of this, I’m currently working on several other collaborative projects: one looking at fight clubs on Telegram, another exploring the depiction of the far right in Canadian news media, and another on the far right’s representation of LGBTQ+ people and gender. Otherwise, I’m finalizing a Routledge Handbook that will be released at the end of the summer and researching extreme right cultural production, particularly in Hungary.
- What do you want to find out?
A lot of my research focuses on why people want to join far-right organizations and how far-right organizations manage to recruit new supporters and members. I’m also interested in the cultural production of the far right and how this can aid in normalizing far-right attitudes in larger society.
- Why is this important?
Particularly in today’s world, it’s crucial to understand why people support the far right and extremism in general. Not only that, but if we seek to fight back against hatred we need to understand why people believe these things and how people are radicalized. Understanding the normalization of the far right is also important, to recognize both how far-right attitudes are brought into the mainstream and how the far right attempt to recruit new supporters.
- Who do you collaborate with?
I’ve been very fortunate to be part of the Center for Research on Extremism (C-REX) at the University of Oslo. Being here has allowed me the opportunity to meet brilliant researchers working in the field of extremism studies. My current collaborations are with colleagues here at C-REX and with one colleague who was a visiting PhD scholar here last autumn.
- What do you look for when choosing research partners?
I think it’s important that you get along with whoever you collaborate with, as you’ll need to bounce ideas off one-another and work quite closely for a period of time. For me it’s also a bonus if the person if of a different disciplinary background, which in our field is luckily quite easy to find.
- What do you think is the most interesting thing about being a researcher?
We’re incredibly lucky as researchers (I feel that “luck” has been a theme in my answers!). We get to come up with a ideas and explore them, not to mention working with brilliant scholars. We’re in a position where our work can spark discussion, both within and outside academia.
- What is the most common question you get about your work?
This does somewhat depend on where I am. Back in Hungary, I’ve been asked several times why I don’t study the far left – why only the far right. I find also as a female researcher, often people have tried to explain to me why (for example) people choose to join far-right organizations. This is a bit tongue-in-cheek, of course, but still the reality of being a researcher…and a woman. To be honest I tend to be fairly reluctant to discuss my research too much in a casual setting with those I don’t know, as we don’t know peoples’ political leanings by looking at them.