The seminar will be held in English.

The Hamburg Political Science Seminar Series (HPS³) features international speakers presenting cutting-edge research in all subfields of political science.

We welcome on

Wednesday, November 25, 2026 - 16:30-18:00 CET in Allende-Platz 1 (AP 1) Room 110

Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte (University of Southampton)

Title: Facts against femonationalism: how to stop far-right normalisation

Abstract:
The use of liberal justifications to normalize and popularize exclusionary views and policies has become a potent political communication tool for both far-right and mainstream conservative parties. We ask how these strategic liberal appeals can be countered, focusing on femonationalism, the use of gender-equality frames to normalize anti-immigrant sentiments. We distinguish content rebuttals, targeting factual inaccuracies in the link between immigration and crimes against women, and reputation rebuttals, targeting the credibility of bearers of femonationalism on gender-equality issues. Using an original, pre-registered audio-video vignette experiment in Germany (N=3,994), we show that content rebuttal reduces femonationalist attitudes by 16.1% and shifts the perceived social acceptability of anti-immigrant expression from a majority to a minority position, while reputation rebuttals largely fail. Femonationalism's persuasive power lies in its ability to link issues across ideological domains; content rebuttal that questions the validity of this linkage can neutralize the potency of this strategic discursive tool. 

The HPS³ seminars take place in person at the UHH. Please find the preliminary program (pdf) on the HPS³ Website.

We invite everyone interested to attend the HPS Seminar Series and are looking forward to seeing you. 

No prior registration is needed.