Founded in 2009 at the University of California, the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies (formerly the Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements) is a research unit dedicated to the study of right-wing movements in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Our approach is to look at the Right in its diversity. Some movements focus on social or religious issues, some on nationalism or race, sometimes with militaristic tendencies, others on economic doctrines. The most successful right-wing movements manage to assemble coalitions that include elements from more than one of these categories. With the end of the cold war, anti-communism was exhausted as a unifying force. Pent-up for decades, particular right-wing movements now spun onto the political stage with renewed energy and sometimes remarkable political appeal. In a few cases, these groups have managed to find a basis for alliance and have come to power. Others have created chaotic international hot spots. In this country a populist movement has come into being since the Obama election espousing fierce antipathy toward American liberalism in the name of "traditional American values" while claiming as well dissatisfaction with the direction of the Republican Party.
The mission of the Center, which is housed at the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues (ISSI), is twofold: first, to identify right-wing movements, flesh out their twentieth-century histories (how they aligned and how they survived) while isolating their novel aspects in the 21st century; and second, to develop and apply principles of how right-wing thought, ideology and organizational capacities operate to understand the state of the contemporary Right and identify its likely directions and successes. In addition to its research activities, the Center publishes findings, offers mini-grants, fellowships and training opportunities to Berkeley students, and brings together leading scholars through conferences, colloquia, and other public events in order to share new research and engage in interdisciplinary dialog related to this field of study. A member of the American Museum Association, the Center is actively engaged in building an archive containing video and print materials on the Right, and making these materials available to local, national and international scholars. (Read more about the Center's archived collections here.)
Read more: 'Our Mission is Scholarship': Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies brings academic lens to conservative movements, The Daily Californian, article by Phil Zhang, May 14, 2018
Donate to the Center
Although we are based at the University of California, Berkeley, the activities and programs of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies are supported entirely by private donations. All donations are tax-deductible. We welcome donations in any amount. We are breaking new ground by encouraging and nurturing academic scholarship, dialogue and debate on all aspects of right-wing movements and thought. We welcome your donations which will be used to support the activities of the Center.
Your gift will support both established scholars and graduate and undergraduate students who are engaged in new and vital research on right-wing movements in a wide range of geographical contexts. In addition, gifts are used to provide public colloquia and conferences on a variety of topics, and to assemble an archive of materials from right-wing sources that will be housed at UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library and made available to scholars worldwide via the Internet. Gifts of all sizes make a difference.
Donations may be made through the UC Berkeley Online Giving website. To make a gift via check or stock transfer, please contact crws@berkeley.edu; 510.642.0813.
