The Consequences of Doing Academic Research into the Far Right

The next speaker in this AoIR 2022 session is Antonia Vaughan, whose focus is on how we as academics can research the far right while minimising potential harms. This has been problematised by the neoliberal turn in academia, where precarity is the norm and critical research may be disincentivised. This promotes neoliberal ideas of academic individualism, encapsulated in the phrase ‘publish or perish’, or perhaps now ‘publish and perish’. Attention on articles has been increasingly metricised, including also via altmetrics that allow for connections and visibility in the public sphere outside of traditional academic spaces. This also valorises academic social capital, and its generation via social media engagement.

Researchers of the far right are subjected to these same pressures, but are exposed to additional risks because of the subjects they study. Harm arises from the topic, and visibility increases risks to researchers. Antonia explored these issues with researchers – and particularly early-career, female researchers – around the world, and their experiences are concerning. Two key harms emerged from this research: networked harassment including doxxing, death threats, and cyberstalking. Far-right actors are paying close attention to research about them, and researchers recommended countermeasures such as obscurity and increased control of personal information, and indeed the withdrawal from the public sphere, but this also comes with substantial costs as such withdrawal reduces researchers’ opportunities for professional engagement and advancement. Especially for early-career researchers, there is a distinct question about whether these risks and this vicarious trauma are worth the time and effort invested in the research.

There are a number of mediating factors here: personal identity affects the likelihood and impact of possible harm, as some groups are considerably more likely to be harassed by far-right actors. Geographic location also affects these harms; US scholars in particular are considerably more exposed to such attacks, and there is more information about them out in the public domain. Seniority also plays a role: more senior scholars have more access to healthcare and other support mechanisms.

But this is not limited to researchers of the far right: those doing work in COVID-19 research fields and other areas that are subject to attacks from fringe groups are similarly endangered and affected by these processes. Scholars continue this work because they want to do good, but many also know that they will leave academia at the end of their research projects.