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The Hijab: France’s Greatest Threat Since the Croissant Went Gluten-Free

A patriotic warning from a person who has never met the threat, but has read a lot about it on Twitter France has survived a great deal. Two world wars, the Hundred Years’ War (which lasted 116 years, a scandal in itself), and the day a Parisian waiter was polite to a tourist. But nothing […]

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United by Division: How Trump Won the Battle for Belonging

By Ava Gamba As the Trump administration closes out the second calendar year of its second presidency, many still ask: How did it happen? How, in the face of the Democratic coalition, a party with a commitment to equality, did Trump’s ethno-nationalist, Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda triumph? Examining Michael Williams’ concept of ‘liberal […]

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Podcast

The Identity Hunters Podcast

We are launching a new podcast! Launched by former students of the nationalism module, this podcast continues our mission: to track how identity is constructed, politicised, and contested, though this time, through conversations!In recent years, nationalism has returned across the globe. From the lasting influence of Donald Trump in the United States, to the growing […]

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Immortal life through Death

By Zayd Riaz “Martyrdom is a divine gift to the chosen ones. The magnificence of this lofty position is proportional to the grandeur of the sacrosanct self-sacrifice which draws the martyr to the field of resistance and nourishes him with the sweetness of martyrdom.” Ayatollah Khomeini[1] It was Khomeini who first linked the idea of […]

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Roestigraben: Beyond the Romand/Alemannic Divide

The Author has requested to remain anonymous. Roestis are a dish made from grated potatoes that are fried in a pan and often served as a pancake. The dish originates from the Swiss-German cantons Bern, Fribourg or Zurich, depending on the version, and was traditionally eaten for breakfast by farmers and peasants. Roestigraben means ‘roesti gap’, it […]

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The Red Scare and Ontological Security

By Zayd Riaz In order to reap change within a society, you create a rhetoric that threatens the very thing that keep the people alive and stable: their identity. The politization of masculinity within 1950s America will be the concept under scrutiny today. Masculinity is an essential foundation in which males throughout history have used […]

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The ‘Cuck’ as Symbolic of Modern White Nationalist Movements

“If a man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.”   Immanuel Kant, quoted in the movie Cuck (2019)  The evolution of the ‘cuck’ trope  The comedies of Shakespeare and Chauser frequently featured the character trope of the ‘cuckold’ – a man whose wife is unfaithful, playing into popular Elizabethan […]

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From Fellowship to Fascism? Tolkien, Nationalism, and the Politics of Literary Appropriation

By Eliot Tomlinson Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings have inspired many generations, uniting readers in a shared love for epic storytelling and mythological settings. It promotes empathetical values through the union of the races in the Fellowship. This is why I was amazed to hear JD Vance, a strong anti-abortionand anti-immigration politician, claim that “a lot of (his) […]

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Divided by Rösti, United in Fondue: the complexities of Swiss nationalism

By Eliot Tomlinson Switzerland is often perceived as a maverick in international politics: a neutral, decentralised State that doesn’t quite fit the typical nation-state model. Its strong federalism, linguistic diversity, and cultural plurality raise questions about whether it can truly be understood as a nation at all. This blog explores how national symbols, particularly food, express […]