Michael Cole
Illiberal democracy in Russia and right-wing politics in Europe (UT)
Michael Cole is a PhD candidate at the University of Tartu, Estonia and visiting researcher at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow. He has a strong interest in The Far-Right, Sociolinguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), particularly in relation to Russia and Eastern Europe. His current research as part of the FATIGUE programme focuses on the influence of ‘Shared History’ and ‘Competition with the West’ narratives in Russia on far-right populist discourses in Georgia and Ukraine. Michael is also working on different Russian language media representations of the 2018 Kerch Strait Incident, the use of animals by populists to gain support on social media, and the relationship between football and far-right populism. He is regularly contributor to the UCL SSEES Research Blog and Lossi 36, and has presented his work at conferences in Finland, Estonia, Poland, Sweden, and Denmark.
Michael is supervised by Andrey Makarychev at the University of Tartu and Zdzisław Mach at Jagiellonian University.
Contact:
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @NotTheMikeCole
Blog: https://notthemikecole.home.blog/
Work in Progress:
Soft Power, Cats, Branding and the Ukrainian Far-Right
Academic publications:
- 09/2021: Cole, M. (2021). Political Street Stickers in Resistance to Biopower in Poland: The Case of Krakow During the 2020 Polish Presidential Election Campaign. Journal of Illiberalism Studies, DOI: https://doi.org/10.53483/VCHV2526
- 11/2020: Cole, M. (2020). A Taste of Georgia. Far Right Populism with a Unique Georgian Flavour. Populism, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/25888072-BJA10010
- Book Chapter ‘Populist Tactics: Ramzan Kadyrov’s use of football as a political tool during the 2018 FIFA World Cup (In Progress)
- Article ‘Russian Influence in the Georgian Far Right’ (In Progress)
- Article ‘Far-Right Influence on Ukrainian World War Two Narratives Online’ (In Progress)
- Article ’Alternative Truths: A Comparative Analysis of the Kerch Strait Incident in Russian Language News Reports’ (In Progress)
Blog posts:
- 23/06/2021: June in Russia: magic mushrooms, dress codes and everyone’s favourite laundry Lossi 36
- 18/04/2021: April in Russia: Russian woman made of salt shakes up Eurovision Lossi 36
- 22/3/2021: March in Russia: Zenit 36 – Covid 19 – can football help defeat the Coronavirus? Lossi 36
- 17/7/2020: It Started Out With A Fish, How Did It End Up Like This?
- 11/5/2020: Streets of Rage? Why asking Ukrainians to love their neighbours might show they are still streets apart
- 6/4/2020: Follow the Dream or Keep the Faith? The Societal Dilemma at the Heart of Georgia’s Response to Covid-19
- 23/3/2020: ‘The People’s Game: Why Football and Right-Wing Populism Might be the Perfect Match’ Lossi 36
- 26/2/2020: ‘Soft Power: Cats, Branding and the Ukrainian Far Right’ Lossi 36
- 7/1/2020: ‘What Could Be More Polish than Your Red and White? Fatigue Blog
- 20/6/2019: ‘Soft Power: Cats, Branding and the Ukrainian Far Right’ UCL SSEES Research Blog
- 14/5/2019: ‘The Joker Becomes King: What Happened in the Ukrainian Election and why Chantal Mouffe Might also Vote for Zelenskiy’ with O.Yermakova. UCL SSESS Blog
- 10/5/2019: ‘Ukrainian Politics is Like a Box of Chocolates’ with O. Yermakova. UCL SSEES Research Blog
Articles:
- 21/05/2021: How right-wing populists use food to legitimise their extreme views (Open Democracy)
- 10/12/2020: Are Poland’s football ultras really supporting the Women’s Strike? (Open Democracy)
- 17/09/2020: ‘Holy war in the city of knives: anti-semitism and football on the streets of Krakow’ (Open Democracy)
Podcasts:
- 04/03/2021: Football vs the far-right in Georgia and pure fitbaw in Scotland (OTB Sports)
- 04/11/2020: Studying the Far-Right in Eastern European Football (Outside Write)
Conference Presentations:
- 02/2020 ‘Russian Influence on the Georgian Far-Right’ Nationalist historiography in the Post-Communist South Caucasus Conference, Central Eastern University, Budapest, Hungary
- 01/2020 ‘Soft Power: Cats, Branding and the Ukrainian Far-Right: Poster Presentation’ Research in Online Political Hostility Conference, Aarhus University, Denmark
- 01/2020 ‘Far-Right Influence on Ukrainian World War Two Narratives Online’ Far-Right Memory Politics in the Internet Era Workshop, Södertörn University, Sweden
- 12/2019 ‘Russian Influence on Georgian Far-Right Narratives’ The Caucasus After 1991: Conference, Warsaw University, Poland
- 11/2019 ‘Far-Right Influence on Ukrainian World War Two Narratives’ CBEES Annual Conference 2019: Central and Eastern Europe 1989-2019: Orders and Freedoms, Södertörn University and Uppsala University, Sweden
- 08/2019 ‘Soft Power: Cats, Branding and the Ukrainian Far-Right’ Helsinki Conference on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation Populism Helsinki University, Finland