“The Rise of the Far-right & Social Cohesion”. A symposium by ISS21 Populism and the Rise of the Far-right Research Cluster. 

Running Order

9.15-9.30 – Registration & coffee and tea. 

9.30-9.45 – Opening remarks by Prof Theresa Reidy (UCC). 

9.45-10.30 – Dr Tine Munk (Nottingham Trent University) on “From Memes to Mobilisation: The Digital Mainstreaming of Far-right Politics”.  With a response by Dr Amin Sharifi Isaloo (UCC) and chairing by Dr Kara Hosford (UCC). 

Dr Tine Munk is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Nottingham Trent University, UK. She specialises in cybercrime, information and memetic warfare, and digital extremism. Her research explores how far-right movements operate across online and offline spaces, focusing on power relations, key actors, the strategic use of digital platforms, networked radicalisation, information disorder, and platform governance. She is the author of the monograph, Far-Right Extremism Online (2024), which examines how far-right actors mobilise through digital networks and exploit regulatory gaps. She has also co-edited Victimisation in the Digital Age (2025) and New Forms of Civic Resistance and Activism (2026). Her co-authored article, “When Lies Go Viral: Social Media and the 2024 UK Riots”, analyses how online information disorder can escalate into offline unrest. She has also co-authored the forthcoming chapter, “The Online-Offline Continuum Approach: Networked Far-Right Extremism", in the International Handbook on Counter-Radicalisation (De Gruyter), which examines how memes and digital communication strategies have normalised far-right extremist narratives within European populist political movements. 

10.30-11.15 – Dr Katharina Karcher (University of Birmingham) on “Creative Responses to Far-right Terrorism: Two Case Studies from Germany”. With a response by Dr Evelien Geerts (UCC) and chairing by Dr Dyuti Chakravarty (UCC). 

Dr Katharina Karcher is Associate Professor in Modern Languages at the University of Birmingham, UK. Katharina’s research focuses on political protest and violence in the 20th and 21st centuries. In this context, she is particularly interested in questions of gender, race, class, dis/ability, and political ideology. Katharina’s publications have focused on a range of topics including feminist activism in the Federal Republic of Germany, the global 1968, and urban terrorism in contemporary Europe. She is the author of Sisters in Arms: Militant Feminisms in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1968 (first published in English by Berghahn in 2017), and co-editor of the volumes Women, Global Protest Movements and Political Agency: Rethinking the Legacy of 1968 (Routledge 2018) and Urban Terrorism in Contemporary Europe: Remembering, Imagining, and Anticipating Violence (Springer 2024). 

11.15-12 – Lassane Ouedraogo (Africa Centre Ireland) on “The Rise of the Far-right in Ireland and Europe: Implications for Social Cohesion”. With a response by Dr Yasmine Ahmed (UCC) and chairing by Dr Gertrude Cotter (UCC). 

Lassane Ouedraogo is a community leader, human rights advocate, and migrant rights campaigner. He is the Chairperson of the Africa Solidarity Centre Ireland (ASCI), where he works to advance the rights, inclusion, and empowerment of migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, Africans, and people of African descent. He also serves as the University of Sanctuary (UoS) Support Officer at Trinity College Dublin, supporting initiatives that expand access to higher education for displaced, refugees and people seeking international protection, and strengthening the University of Sanctuary movement in Ireland. Originally from Burkina Faso (the “Land of the Upright People”), Ouedraogo studied Political Science in his home country. After moving to Ireland, he pursued International Aid and Development at Ballsbridge College of Further Education and later earned a BA (Hons) in International Relations from Dublin City University (DCU). Lassane was a founding member and former National Coordinator of the Campaign to End the Direct Provision System in Ireland and is regarded as one of the early pioneers of the asylum rights movement. Since arriving in Ireland, he has worked with numerous NGOs and advocacy networks, including the Irish Refugee Council, Sport Against Racism Ireland (SARI), and various human rights and anti-racism networks.  

12-1 – Discussion panel with the invited speakers and Q&A with chairing by Dr Mike Murphy (UCC).