digital constructions of whiteness
What does it mean to be "white" in digital space, where you have no body? What cultural touchstones, attributes, mythologies, etc, does this non-bodied whiteness draw upon to support its supposed supremacy How is the concept of race made meaningful online to the extent that it can radicalize people into violent subcultures?
These (and many other) questions drive much of my current research, and they take me in many directions: white nationalist utopian speculative fictions; social media viking iconography; anachronistic gender roles (see #tradwives); contemporary slick art genres with seedy undertones; and straight-up overt white nationalism.
A large part of this research has been conducted with my colleague Chloe Ahmann—looking into the social media spaces of white separatist organizations of the Pacific Northwest—and has thus far led to publications such as "Reading Fascists Reading Shakespeare" and its teaser interview, "Reading Scholars Reading Fascists Reading Shakespeare" as well as the forthcoming "Storm Before the Storm."
There will be much more to say about this, of course, but for the moment I'm "in the field" gathering the data.