ASEN

Radicalisation and Crisis Management: Shifts of Radical Right Discourse
2025-11-10 16:30 - 18:00 UTC
As part of ASEN’s book discussion series, we sit down with Vasiliki (Billy) Tsagkroni to discuss their new book, Radicalisation and Crisis Management: Shifts of Radical Right Discourse on 10th November from 1630UTC (check this time in your city). As ever, we’ll be live on Facebook and YouTube and members will be invited to join the Zoom call.
About the book
This book discusses theories of crisis management and the radical right, to shed light on how responses to crisis influence radical right parties in their presence, discourse, and evolution. The book offers a comparative perspective by examining case studies with various traditions of radical right actors, presenting data on how crisis exploitation can assist in exploring, reconsidering, bargaining, and learning about the prospects of change of political parties. It focuses on the debate on radicalization and crisis management. Similar to the already existing economic, political, post-Brexit, and migration crises in Europe, discourses of fear around the latest health crisis are paving the way for further radicalised discourse from the far right. The book looks into how radical right parties in Europe have responded to these crises. It monitors and explores how crisis exploitation impacts political strategies, opportunity-seeking behaviours, and the evolution of the discourse of radical right parties in the contemporary political landscape.
About the author
Vasiliki (Billy) Tsagkroni is Senior Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at the Institute of Political Science. Their main research includes far-right parties, populism and radicalisation, political discourse, narratives in times of crisis, political marketing and branding and policy making. Their work has been published, among others, in the Journal of Common Market Studies, Party Politics and British Journal of Politics and International Relations and numerous edited books. They hold a PhD from Queen Mary University London (2015), a MA from Panteion University of Athens (2008) and a BA from the same institution (2005).

Book launch: Atsuko Ichiko (2025), Nationalism and subjectivity: East Asian experiences
2026-02-20 18:00 - 20:00 | Birkbeck Central, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY, United Kingdom
This event is free but registration is required.
The Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research (ICPR) and the Department of Politics of Birkbeck, University of London and the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN) invite you to an event to introduce Dr Atsuko Ichijo’s latest monograph, Nationalism and Subjectivity which proposes a reconceptualisation of nationalism based on East Asian experiences.
Running order

Welcome by Dr David Cole (ASEN)
Introduction by Dr Mai Sato (ICPR)
On Nationalism Studies in Birkbeck by Dr Jason Edwards (Politics)
‘Nationalism and Subjectivity: East Asian Experiences’ by Dr Atsuko Ichijo (ICPR)
Reflection on the book by Dr John Hutchinson (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Q&A

The event is chaired by Dr David Cole (ASEN).
Dr John Hutchinson will comment on Dr Atsuko Ichijo’s presentation to initiate a discussion with the audience on the state of theories of nationalism and the field of Nationalism Studies. The in-person session will be followed by a drinks reception.
Dr Atsuko Ichijo is a Honorary Research Fellow at ICPR. Her research interest is in Nationalism Studies and Nationalism and Subjectivity is her sixth monograph on nationalism. She is a member of the editorial team of Nations and Nationalism and serves on the International Advisory Board of the Association of the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism.

Anthony D. Smith Lecture 2026 | Left, Right, & Centre: national political authority and its symbolisation | Jonathan Hearn
2026-04-21 18:00 | Old Medical School, Teviot Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AG, United States
This lecture examines the ideas through which we both do and analyse national politics in the modern world, treating these as both concepts, and symbols. It looks at three pairs of concepts: Left and Right, Centre and Periphery, and Liberal and Authoritarian. Regarding Left/Right, I argue that this is a symbolic structure that is necessary for democratic politics, but not reflective of deep political principles. We may tend to overweight the analytic value of this distinction. Regarding Centre/Periphery, drawing on Edward Shils, I argue that this distinction is essential for the analysis of the distributions of material and ideological power in all states, across human history. Regarding Liberal/Authoritarian, I argue that this modern distinction hinges precisely on the ‘tightness’ or ‘looseness’ of the governing relationship between centre and periphery. Beneath this analysis of political ideas is a concern with how nations construct political authority, which for me is the core problem of nationalism. I invite the listener (and reader) to consider whether this concern comes within the remit of Anthony Smith’s ethnosymbolic approach.
