Events

Details on our past events are here. Many of them have been video-recorded; you will see links to those events on the past events page or visit our video page.  If you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you will be notified when new videos are available.

Fall 2019 

Tuesday, November 12 I 4:00-5:30pm

Center for Right Wing Studies Colloquia Series:

After Obamageddon: Reflections on the Rise of Right-Wing 'Doomsday' Prepping in 21st Century America

Michael Mills, Lecturer in Criminology, School of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research, University of Kent

This talk draws on a sustained ethnography of American 'Doomsday' prepping. Drawing on fieldwork taking place in 2014 and 2018, it pays particular attention to the political dimensions of doomsday prepping culture, including the political discontents that many preppers identify as energizing their activities (under both Obama and Trump). The talk will highlight ways in which the fears of many American preppers align with relatively mainstream right-wing politics (rather than more fringe perspectives with which prepping tends to be associated in much academic and popular commentary). That said, it will also contend that prepping's status as a 'mainstream' phenomenon is dependent on a continually shifting right-wing mainstream that increasingly embraces Far and Extreme Right thinking. It will conclude by offering some thoughts as to how prepping culture may change in the future – specifically as the USA heads into (and beyond) the 2020 election.

Shorb House (Latinx Research Center), 2547 Channing Way