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Social conservatism has gained renewed visibility alongside the rise of right-wing populism and intensified debates over gender, sexuality, and democratic norms. What motivates contemporary social conservative movements? How do they build durable communities and sustain political influence?

This conversation explores the role of digital environments and social media in shaping networks associated with the “trad” or radical right. How are online forums used to construct shared moral worlds, identities, and visions of the future? How do these communities interpret embodiment, gender hierarchy, and social order? And how might their discourses be situated within longer historical trajectories linking European and American traditions of conservatism and reaction?

By examining these dynamics, the event aims to illuminate how digitally mediated communities generate cohesion, boundary-drawing, and political imagination in contemporary right-wing activism.

Moderated by Thomas Owings, Doctoral Candidate in Political Science & AMC Graduate Fellow.

Bio

Sarah Riccardi-Swartz is an assistant professor of religion and anthropology and an affiliate faculty member in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Northeastern University. Her research focuses on social politics, media worlds, and Orthodox Christianity in the United States. Her first book is Between Heaven and Russia: Religious Conversion and Political Apostasy in Appalachia (Fordham University Press, 2022).