Research

Antifeminist and Male Supremacist Radicalization

My research on radicalization covers several research projects where I (often in collaboration with colleagues from the IRMS) examine the gendered strategies and discourses that undergird ongoing radicalization dynamics into male and white supremacist extremist movements and communities. I particularly have investigated the dynamics within the online male supremacist network of the so-called Manosphere. Focus areas within this research strands are:

– The differing discourses around gender hierarchies and male supremacist ideology within different groups of the Manosphere and across platforms
– the role of science (evidence-based misogyny) in radicalization discourses of male and white supremacist groups
– the cooptation of (radical) feminist mobilizing techniques by antifeminist and male supremacist networks of the Manosphere
– the problematic reception of radicalization and the continuation of male supremacist and misogynist assumptions within academic and policy treatment

OUTPUT:

My research on radicalization has been published internationally in journals like International Affairs, Big Data and Society, Men & Masculinities, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Perspectives on Terrorism and Social Politics. With my colleagues at the IRMS, I have developed a typology of masculinities within the Manosphere. My research has also been featured in several media and public appearances (see CV). I have published on the topic in German-speaking outlets including journals, Handbooks and material for practitioners and educators (see also CV).

The Mobilization of Gender-Based Needs for Right-Wing Populism (Horizon Europe)

Within my postdoc position in the Horizon Europe Project UNTWIST: policy recommendations to regain “losers of feminism” as mainstream voters, I conduct research on mobilization of gender issues for electoral successes of right-wing populist parties. UNTWIST is a Horizon Europe research project, financed by the European Commission and the Swiss Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation. It runs from February 2023 to January 2026. In the project, I have led the data-based development of a typology on gender-based needs which has served as a lens for the following data collection and analysis of cross-country data (including focus groups, party manifestos and representative surveys) on representation gaps in gendered grievances.

OUTPUT:

My research on mobilization, which has been conducted in close collaboration with partners from the project’s consortium of universities in six countries is currently in preparation for publication. Articles – as well as a Special Issue, which I am guest-editing – focus specifically on the conceptualization of gender-based needs as a novel lens to understand feminist insights into gender gaps in political representation as well as the construction of radicality and complexity by right-wing actors in Switzerland and Germany.

Gender and Prevention and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) (PhD Research 2017-2024):

In my research on prevention, I use discourse-analytical and Natural Language Processing techniques to analyze global and transnational counterterrorism and P/CVE strategies. In particular, I show how the counterterrorism reform process at the United Nations since 2000 integrated different interpretations and representations of gender and how this influences the UN’s counterterrorism architecture as well as other gender agendas within the United Nations system. A short overview of my research on prevention has been published in German here: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/fileadmin/projects/intorg/PUBLIKATIONEN/PortalWissen_1-2024_de_web.pdf

OUTPUT:

This research area was the main topic of my paper-based PhD thesis at the University of Potsdam. The full thesis is called ‘Between Queen and Pawn. Gender and United Nations’ Governance of Terrorism and Violent Extremism ’. The associated papers have been published or are under review with the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Critical Studies on Terrorism, International Studies Quarterly, and in an edited volume on Global Challenges by Routledge. Other papers appear in a SAGE Research Methods collection, and the Handbook of Gender and Global Governance.

I have further guest-edited (together with Laura Shepherd) a Special Issue on Gender and the Governance of Terrorism and Violent Extremism with Critical Studies on Terrorism, which has been published as an Routledge Edited Volume in 2023.