Last night the University of Northampton hosted the 2020 Diamond Research Awards. These awards celebrate the research that is undertaken at the University of Northampton, the staff that make it happen, and the staff who supervise, develop and encourage our new up and coming researchers.
We were absolutely delighted that our Senior Lecturer in History, Dr Paul Jackson, won the prestigious Research Impact award. Paul gives us this insight into his research and why it matters:
My research into the history of the far right has been underpinned by the Searchlight Archive, which is based at the University of Northampton. The archive itself is a trove of material related to the far right, past and present, and a number of students have used it for dissertations and PhD projects. My research over the past few years has been to use this unique collection to create peer reviewed articles, chapters and books, and also to develop ‘impact’. Research outputs have included a biography of a leading British neo-Nazi, Colin Jordan, and an article examining the World Union of National Socialists, a 1960s era transnational network active in Britain and Europe, the USA and Australia. Some of my impact activities have included running CPD workshops for people who tackle the far right in professional contexts, such as police officers, hate crime workers and teachers. It has also included working with government agencies and think tanks to help develop a better understanding of the nature of the far right today. I also talk to the media on a regular basis. As a historian working in this area, I often can bring a sense of historical context that analysts from other areas find helpful.
Paul contributes regularly to the mainstream media, for instance in this piece on Donald Trump for The Guardian, and his most recent academic publication is this article on the World Union of National Socialists. He is the author of Colin Jordan and Britain’s Neo-Nazi Movement (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016).
Congratulations, Paul!
HISTORY AT NORTHAMPTON 