Videos of many of our events are available below.
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Populism and the Far Right: Global Frameworks and Local Crises
Check out the video of our fall 2025 event featuring Amy Skonieczny, Professor of International Relations at San Francisco State University and Valentina Nava, PhD candidate in Political Sociology at Université Paris Cité. They discuss their respective papers, "Does Populism Have a Global Vision? Right-Wing Populism and the Reimagining of Global Governance" and "Economic Crisis and Far-Right Voting in Rural Working-Class Italy."
Sponsored by: Berkeley Center for Right Wing Studies
Co-Sponsored by: Institute of European Studies
11.19.25
"Migrants and natives – “them” and “us”. Radical right and mainstream political rhetoric in the Western European shift to the right"
Kristina Boréus, Professor of Political Science, Uppsala University, Sweden
Across Western Europe, borders are being closed to refugees, while the Geneva Convention is circumvented or even openly challenged. At the same time, immigrants’ rights – including residence, nationality, and political as well as social rights – are being steadily curtailed.
This lecture explores how a “threat perspective” on immigration and migrants has gained dominance in several West European countries, particularly after 2015, pushing aside more inclusive understandings. It also shows how a “native dominance perspective” on immigrant integration has spread, displacing perspectives that emphasize equal rights for natives and immigrants alike. Drawing on comparative empirical evidence, the lecture highlights how these rhetorical and political shifts unfold across different national contexts.
The consequences are profound: refugees and immigrant minorities are directly affected, but so too are the wider societies in which they live. These developments form part of the broader right-wing turn that has already reshaped – and continues to reshape – politics and rhetoric across Western Europe.
Sponsored by: ISSI's Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies
Co-sponsored by: Institute of European Studies and Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative
September 25, 2025
"The Radical Mind: The Origins of Right-Wing Catholic and Protestant Coalition Building"
Chelsea Ebin, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Drew University
Chelsea Ebin shows how conservative Protestants and Catholics overcame their suspicion of and hostility toward one another to form an enduring coalition on the American Right. Ebin proposes that the radical aims of the New Christian Right have been obscured by the way they cultivated a shared identity of victimhood and manipulated the discourse about backlash to create a nostalgic idea of the past that they then leveraged to justify their right-wing policy goals. She offers a new explanation for the recent gains of the Christian Right and the morally supercharged political landscape we face today.
Sponsored by: ISSI's Center for Right-Wing Studies
Co-sponsored by: Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion
May 12, 2025
"Policing White Supremacy"
Michael German, Fellow at Brennan Center for Justice, New York University Law
in conversation with:
Chesa Boudin, Executive Director, Criminal Law & Justice Center, UC Berkeley,
and Lawrence Rosenthal, Chair, Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, UC Berkeley
The FBI has long warned its agents that the affiliation of law enforcement officers with white supremacist and far-right militant groups poses a threat to FBI investigations and security. But the FBI does not have a program to identify these officers and protect the public from them. Former FBI agent Mike German explains the continuing deficiencies in the law enforcement response to racist violence and what must be done to correct them.
Sponsored by: Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies and Criminal Law & Justice Center
February 20, 2025
Most markedly in Florida and Texas, but now in many other states across the country, legislation aims to restrict what can be taught in universities, what topics and issues can be the subject of research or campus programming, and what analyses of history and social conflict are permissible to discuss.
In the face of this national attack on academic freedom and university autonomy, how might we better respond? How might university leadership, faculty, staff, and students organize and fight back against the multiple right-wing attacks on university curricula, programs and services?
Many university leaders feel constrained by long traditions of non-partisanship, the fear of alienating legislative leaders, and stepping into political issues fraught with conflict. But if the threat to universities is existential, can we remain silent? How might we honor non-partisanship and yet respond to partisan attacks? And, what works? And what might we do in states where we do not face immediate threat, but want to help our colleagues elsewhere?
PEN America has documented the national attacks, and the multiple responses. And many faculty and administrators are seeking new ways of mobilizing support for academic freedom. Our panel will bring together scholars and leaders who are active in national initiatives to speak out, organize, and respond to legislative attacks on academic freedom.
Speakers:
Jeremy Young, Director of PEN America's "Freedom to Learn" Project
Richard Guarasci, President Emeritus, Wagner College
Johnnella Butler, Provost Emerita, Spellman College
Moderator:
Brian Murphy, President Emeritus, De Anza College
This talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Studies in Higher Education, the UC Berkeley Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, the Berkeley Institute of International Studies, and the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies.
Mar 15, 2024.
Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida - A Discussion on the Recent AAUP Report
Feb 26, 2024
Laura Pulido, Collins Chair and Professor of Indigenous, Race, & Ethnic Studies and Geography, University of Oregon
In this talk I consider the relationship between U.S. white nationalism and the Republican Party’s (GOP) record of climate obstruction. Despite having produced a disproportionate share of historic green-house gas, the U.S. has been a leader in climate denial and slow to embrace meaningful climate action. Though the fossil fuel industry’s campaign of disinformation has been well-documented, less understood are the politicians who do its bidding. While many assume the state is simply implementing the desires of the fossil fuel industry, what is called regulatory capture, this assumes a nonracial state. I argue that regulatory capture does not fully explain the current GOP’s commitment to blocking climate action. Instead, I suggest that “surplus” white nationalism has contributed to both climate denial and obstruction. I define surplus white nationalism as the excessive energy and power of white nationalism that cannot be contained or selectively controlled. Because it spills over onto seemingly unrelated areas with sometimes unanticipated consequence - it is surplus. By focusing on three historical moments - the Tea Party movement (2009-15), the Trump Presidency (2015-19), and the War on Wokeness (2021-present), I show how surplus white nationalism impacts climate obstruction.
Sponsored by Latin American and Caribbean Socionatures Working Group, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, Berkeley Black Geographies Project, Geography Department, Rausser College of Natural Resources, Climate Equity and Environmental Justice Roundtable, and Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies
[our apologies; we had some technical difficulties and don't have a video-recording of Professor Pulido giving the talk, just the slides and the audio]
February 12, 2024
September 30, 2022
Tanjev Schultz, Professor of Journalism, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, and Visiting Scholar, ISSI's Center for Right Wing Studies
09/15/2021
John A. Douglass, Center for Studies in Higher Education
09/14/2021
Anti-Trans Ideology in Male Supremacism
May 13, 2021
Emily Carian, California State University, San Bernardino
JE Sumerau, University of Tampa
Laurel Westbrook, Grand Valley State University
Heron Greenesmith, Political Research Associates
Facilitator: Blu Buchanan, University of California, Davis
May 11, 2021
Moderator: Stephen Small, Director, Institute for the Study of Societal Issues
Daniel HoSang, Yale University
Adrienne Davis, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity at Washington University in St. Louis
Rokhaya Diallo, Gender+ Justice Initiative at Georgetown University
Kwame Nimako, Black Europe Summer School
Megan Kelly, PhD Student, Center for Gender Studies, University of Basel
Alex DiBranco, Executive Director, Institute for Research on Male Supremacism
Julia R. DeCook, Assistant Professor, School of Communication, Loyola University Chicago
Sian Tomkinson, PhD, Gender and Games, University of Western Australia
Tauel Harper, Lecturer, Media and Communication, UWA
03/18/2021
Panelists:
Ann C. Keller, Associate Professor, School of Public Health
Zeus Leonardo, Professor, Graduate School of Education
john a. powell, Director, Othering and Belonging Institute
Moderated by: Osagie K. Obasogie, Professor of Bioethics in the School of Public Health
03/12/2021
Lawrence Rosenthal, Chair, Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, and author of Empire of Resentment
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Professor of Education & Sociology, American University
Corey D. Fields, Associate Professor of Sociology, Georgetown University
11/19/2020
Khiara M. Bridges, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley
Carole Joffe, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UC San Francisco
Jill E. Adams, Executive Director of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice
09/30/2020
Chelsea Ebin, Institute for Research on Male Supremacism Co-founder
Julia DeCook, Institute for Research on Male Supremacism Fellow
Lawrence Rosenthal, Chair of Center for Right-Wing Studies
04/23/2020
Inaugural Conference on Right-Wing Studies Keynote Panel
Welcome and Introduction:
Dr. Christine Trost, Academic Coordinator, Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies
Opening Remarks:
Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal, Founder and Chair, Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies
Keynote Panel Speakers:
-Joseph Lowndes, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Oregon
-Dr. Heidi Beirich, Intelligence Project Director, Southern Poverty Law Center
-Ben Cowan, Associate Professor of History, UC San Diego
-Dr. Alina Polyakova, David M. Rubenstein Fellow, Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution
04/25/2019
Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Professor of Education and Sociology; Director, International Training and Education Program, American University
04/18/2019
Martina Avanza, Senior Lecturer, Political Sociology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
04/11/2019
Brian Porter-Szucs, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of History, University of Michigan
02/01/2019
George Hawley, Assistant Professor of Political Science, The University of Alabama
03/15/2018
Katherine Cramer, Professor, Department of Political Science, and Director, Morgridge Center for Public Service, University of Madison-Wisconsin
with Arlie Hochschild, Professor Emerita of Sociology, UC Berkeley, as respondent
11/09/2017
Duncan McDonnell, Senior Lecturer, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
10/19/2017
This playlist includes four videos:
1) Welcome and Introductory Remarks by Lawrence Rosenthal
2) Constitutional Rights: Lowell Bergman, Bertrall Ross, and Jonathan Simon
3) Health and Public Welfare: Ben Handel, Melissa Murray, Fred Block, Sociology, and Janelle Scott
4) Global Engagement: Alberto Garcia, Daniel Sargent, Paul Pierson, Terri Bimes
April 21, 2017
George Lakoff, Director of the Center for the Neural Mind & Society and Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics, UC Berkeley
03/14/2017
Kelsy Burke, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of Nebraska - Lincoln
03/01/2017
Brian Fishman, Counterterrorism Research Fellow in the International Studies Program at New America
02/02/2017
Larry Rosenthal, Carol Joffe, and Paul Pierson discussed Trump's victory in the 2016 election and what it means for the future of the Republican Party and the American Right. Moderated by Kim Voss.
November 29, 2016
Corey Fields, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Stanford University
10/27/2016
Firmin DeBrabander, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Art
10/20/2016
Yiannis Gabriel, Chair in Organizational Studies, University of Bath, School of Management
04/13/2016
Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University
04/06/2016
Alina Polyakova, Deputy Director, Eurasia Center, Atlantic Council
02/18/2016
Cas Mudde, Associate Professor, School of Public and International Affairs, University of Georgia
01/27/2016
"The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State"
William McCants, Director, Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World and Fellow, Center for Middle East Policy, The Brookings Institution
The Islamic State is one of the most lethal and successful jihadist groups in modern history, surpassing even al-Qaida. How has it attracted so many followers and conquered so much land in its relatively brief existence? On December 9, Will McCants will discuss the Islamic State’s history, tactics, and goals, and the many ways in which it is more ruthless, more apocalyptic, and more devoted to state-building than any of its predecessors or current competitors. McCants' recently-published book, The ISIS Apocalypse, is based almost entirely on primary sources in Arabic—including ancient religious texts and secret al-Qaida and Islamic State letters that few have seen—and explores how religious fervor, strategic calculation, and doomsday prophecy shaped the Islamic State's past and foreshadow its dark future.
Sponsored by UC Berkeley's Center for Right-Wing Studies.
Co-sponsored by Center for Middle Eastern Studies and Institute of European Studies.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015.
Brian Fishman, Counterterrorism Research Fellow, New America Foundation and Research Fellow, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
09/29/2015
Amanda Hollis-Brusky, Assistant Professor of Politics, Pomona College
Fred Smith, Assistant Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law, as respondent
02/19/2015
Jason Wittenberg, Associate Professor, Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, UC Berkeley
10/01/2014
Corey Fields, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Stanford University
Laura Stoker, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of California at Berkeley, as respondent
10/17/2013
Bill Whalen, Resident Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Lawrence Rosenthal, Executive Director and Lead Researcher, Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies
Henry E. Brady, Dean Goldman School of Public Policy
Moderated by: Christine Trost, Program Director, Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies; Assistant Director, Institute for the Study of Societal Issues
10/25/2011
Jennifer Burns, Assistant Professor of History, Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia
04/20/2011
Fractures, Alliances and Mobilizations in the Age of Obama: Emerging Analyses of the "Tea Party Movement"
Speaker: Rick Perlstein, Journalist and Author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of American Consensus
October 22, 2010
Fractures, Alliances and Mobilizations in the Age of Obama: Emerging Analyses of the "Tea Party Movement"
October 22, 2010
Presenters:
Christopher Parker, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Washington
Ruth Rosen, Professor Emerita of History, University of California, Davis; Visiting Professor of History, UC Berkeley
Clarence Lo, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Missouri-Columbia
David Weigel, Political Reporter, Slate, and MSNBC contributor
Debra Saunders, Columnist, San Francisco Chronicle
Chair: Jack Citrin, Director, Institute of Governmental Studies & Heller Professor of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley
Fractures, Alliances and Mobilizations in the Age of Obama: Emerging Analyses of the "Tea Party Movement"
October 22, 2010
Presenters:
Martin Cohen, Assistant Professor of Political Science, James Madison University
Alan I. Abramowitz, Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science, Emory University
Peter Montgomery, Senior Fellow, People for the American Way
Bill Whalen, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Chair: Eric Schickler, American Politics Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
Fractures, Alliances and Mobilizations in the Age of Obama: Emerging Analyses of the "Tea Party Movement"
October 22, 2010
Presenters:
Lisa Disch, Professor of Political Science and Professor of Women's Studies, University of Michigan
Charles Postel, Associate Professor of History, San Francisco State University
Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst, Political Research Associates
Devin Burghart, Vice President, Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights
Chair: Paola Bacchetta, Associate Professor of Gender & Women's Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Kathleen Blee, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and History, and Chair of the Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh
03/11/2010
Michelle Goldberg, journalist and author of The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World (Penguin, 2009)
Carole Joffe, Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of California Davis and author of Dispatches from the Abortion Wars: The Costs of Fanaticism to Doctors, Patients and the Rest of Us (Beacon Press, 2010)
01/28/2010
Leonard Zeskind, President, Institute for Reseach & Education on Human Rights
Nick Lowles, Editor, Searchlight Magazine
10/08/2009
