Facts against femonationalism: how to stop radical right normalisation

How can liberal democratic actors counter the normalisation of the radical right? While much research documents how radical right ideology and anti-immigration positions have moved into the political mainstream across many Western democracies, far less is known about the counter-strategies that can be used to combat the normalisation of exclusionary policy agendas.

In this seminar, Katharina Lawall, Quantitative Social Scientist, will present the design and findings of a study that tests the effectiveness of different forms of counterspeech to a prominent radical-right normalisation strategy: femonationalism - presenting an anti-immigration position through the more acceptable frame of gender equality.

Katharina will delve into the experiment, in which nearly 4,000 German adults were exposed to anti-immigration rhetoric with a gender-equality justification in a short, news-style video, followed by alternative rebuttals, with the findings highlighting fact-based counterspeech as most effective for reducing support for femonationalist and anti-immigrant views.

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COMPAS Seminar Series Hilary Term 2026

Theme: ‘The Politics of Immigration and Exclusion’

The seminars will be given at 3.45pm on Thursdays, online on Zoom and in The Hub, Kellogg College (Week 1), The Nissan Lecture Theatre at St Antony’s College (Weeks 3 and 5) and in the Mawby Room at Kellogg College (Week 7). Convened by Sanne van Oosten.

The debate and politics surrounding immigration have become increasingly polarised. Within this context, how do Western democratic societies grapple with rising nativism, exclusionary ideologies, and structural discrimination?

In this hybrid seminar series, leading scholars of political behaviour, race and ethnicity, gendered politics, and inequality will examine the causes and consequences of exclusionary politics and discriminatory structures, and discuss the interventions required to challenge them.

Over the course of the series, speakers will explore a range of topics, including:

The dilemmas facing mainstream social democratic political parties responding to pressures from the radical right, with a focus on the UK; The prevalence and political consequences of colour-blind attitudes in the UK; How gendered anti-immigration narratives gain and lose traction; How discrimination shapes opportunities across the life course, from employment and housing to childcare, and continues to reproduce inequalities across generations.

Attendance is free, and all are welcome. This series will be hybrid: there is one Zoom registration link you can use to attend one or more of the sessions. You do not need to register to join in person.