Farage, Trump, Salvini, Le Pen, Franco, Ataturk, Stalin, Bismark –what could they possibly have in common? Nationalism. The Brexit vote, Le Pen’s capture of 33% of the French vote, Modi’s ethno-religious politics, not to mention Putin’s and Duterte’s macho-patriotic heroism tell us of a global shift towards nationalism.
But how does nationalism work? Why is it so powerful? Why has it returned? How can nationalists lie in ways that no other politicians can? How is identity used to justify who is deserving and who can be left to die?
This project is about understanding how identity and difference are politicised by nationalist politics. We hunt the instances when identity is made and politicised, we are identity hunters.
This website is a platform for the public, students, and academics to engage with one another and explore the challenges of understanding and fighting nationalist politics. It is administered by students of A History of Nations, Nationalism and Theories of the State, a 3rd-year class taught by Dr Pablo de Orellana & Dr Nicholas Michelsen at the Department of War Studies, King’s College London.
Drawing on expert advice, analytics and theories students and the public explore issues of nationalism and how nationalism politicises difference. On this platform, students share their insights into nationalism as they learn. In the FAQ page, students curate questions from each other and the world for themselves and Dr de Orellana to answer once a month. In these and its other activities, this platform seeks to disseminate informed analysis to a wide audience and provide space for them to debate with fellow students and the world.
We would like to thank King’s College London and the KCL Faculty Education Fund, whose financial and logistical support through a grant made in June 2017 made this project possible. We also thank the Department of War Studies and the KCL Research Centre in International Relations at King’s College London for their extensive support.
Identity Hunters 