Jessica Sciarone, PhD

Political Scientist | Political Violence, Extremism & Political Culture

I study how mainstream political and cultural life helps construct extremist movements. My work examines how identity, culture, and discourse shape the emergence, legitimation, and escalation of far-right extremism, with particular attention to radicalization and political violence. I am on the job market for the 2026-2027 academic year. 

My current book project, The Extreme is Mainstream: How Mainstream Culture Legitimates the Far-Right, develops a constructivist account of how extremist movements are built from cultural material already circulating in democratic societies, rather than imported from outside them.  The book traces how the relationship between mainstream culture and extremist commitment escalates, from talk, to identity, to violence, as individuals move from online discourse toward increasingly consequential political action. Mainstream culture is therefore not merely a backdrop against which extremism develops, but one of the principal sources from which it is built. 

My broader research examines far-right extremism, radicalization, political violence, gender, conspiracy theories, and political culture, with a focus on how seemingly ordinary cultural narratives can acquire extremist political significance.

My research has appeared in Terrorism and Political Violence, the European Journal of Politics and Gender, and the Journal for Deradicalization. 

[Research]                        [CV]                     [Publications]