Oppression, Resistance, and Affective Narratives: Understanding the Impact of Cultural Artefacts on Public Opinion about Race and Politics.

Conwright's project fits perfectly with the themes, vision, and grand
challenges outlined in the Security, Conflict and Justice pathway.
Specifically, this PhD project takes an innovative approach to the analysis
of contemporary cultural artefacts and their impact on racial politics.
Conwright's project interrogates important concepts such as 'nationality',
'race', and 'ethnicity' within a global context of rising white nationalism and
far-right extremism, which have also become worrying features of
racialised social conflict (and reactive public policies) in the case study
context of the UK. In doing so, he goes beyond some of the more siloed
research conducted in cultural studies and international relations to
promote an important interdisciplinary inquiry at the micro, meso-, and
macro-level of politics. For instance, his project raises questions about how
emotions mediate personal responses to racial political narratives; how
cultural artefacts provoke inter-group conflict and resolution; and ultimately
how cultural artefacts might operate adjacent to public policy initiatives
aimed at improving racial justice and social harmony. Conwright's project is
also inherently sensitive to the individualised experiences of those who
consume affective narratives about race and politics, and he seeks to
break new ground by capturing that diversity through nuanced theoretical
and empirical work.