What is your field of research – briefly described?

I do in-depth ethnographic work, conducted over a long period of time, with American populations which have been swept up with the politics of the far right.

What are the challenges in your field of research?

I would say the main challenge in my kind of research is to fully win the trust of people who imagine that as an academic I am part of the “elite.” My task is to assure them that while I do not share their viewpoints, we can maintain a respectful and friendly relationship over time.

Why is this research field particularly interesting?

My last two books, Strangers in Their Own Land: mourning, anger and the rise of the right, (2016) and Stolen Pride, loss, shame and the rise of the right (2024) have focused on the worldview of voters in red (Republican) states who now form the center of MAGA support for Donald Trump. It feels to me both hugely interesting and important because it points to ways in which a) the non-Trump sector of American culture can better understand the underlying reasons for the rise of the right, and b) effective ways of building what I call “empathy bridges” across the divide.

What do you expect from your membership of the Royal Academy?

I look forward to learning more about the research of other members of the Royal Academy both in my own field and in other fields

Tell a bit about the person behind the researcher.

I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of a diplomat and grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. At the age of 12, I found myself together with other children, the only American, and native english-speaker on the schoolyard of the Tabeetha School in Jaffa, Israel. This experience transformed me; it gave me an “outsider’s eye” which I carry with me to this day, into the fieldwork I have done all my life.