DrImogen Richards

My research seeks to challenge, disrupt, and transform dominant narratives in criminology and sociology through relational and comparative analyses that deepen our understanding of political violence. By critiquing simplistic dichotomies and highlighting the structural conditions that underpin various forms of violence, my research applies critical theory to explore the complex interconnections in political movements. This approach has led to the development of an empirically grounded theory of political violence that transcends the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ binary.

I also aim to deconstruct oversimplified narratives of political violence, illustrating how events like the Global War on Terror reshape political landscapes and coincide with right wing movements and climate change denialism. This work reveals how media portrayals of crime and terrorism are influenced by prevailing social attitudes toward gender, cultural backgrounds, and structural and historical issues such as capitalism and colonialism.

Through my first book, Neoliberalism and Neo Jihadism: Propaganda and Finance in Al Qaeda and Islamic State, published by Manchester University Press in 2020, I explore how neo jihadist organisations such as IS and Al Qaeda are sustained by neo colonial and neoliberal institutions, highlighting the profound impact of geopolitical and economic interventions on political violence. Utilising discourse and documentary analysis, the book scrutinises the propagandising and financial tactics of these organisations.

A subsequent book co authored with Deakin colleagues Mark Wood and Mary Iliadis, Criminologists in the Media, was published by Routledge in 2022 and presents the results of a cross national study examining the structures that shape criminologists’ contributions to news and social media discourse. Incorporating interviews and survey data from 1,211 criminologists across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, and South Africa, it stands as the first extensive examination of criminologists’ engagement with newsmaking and digital public criminology across these nations.

My research has also examined the relationship between environmental politics and far right ideology. In Global Heating and the Australian Far Right, published by Routledge in 2023 and co authored with Gearóid Brinn and Callum Jones, ecological justice frameworks are applied to analyse the interplay between environmental issues and political ideologies in Australia. The book traces environmentalist and territorial currents within the Australian far right, linking them to longer histories of colonial violence, nationalism, and contemporary forms of political mobilisation.

My recent monograph The Aesthetic Politics of Far Right Environmentalism, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2025, examines how far right groups use art, imagery, and cultural symbolism to disseminate political ideas, particularly in relation to environmental issues. Drawing on aesthetic and political theory, the book analyses how visual media circulating across both mainstream and alternative digital platforms contributes to the framing of ecological crisis and political belonging, and how these cultural forms intersect with contemporary far right politics.

I am also the editor of The Far Right and the Media: International Trends and Perspectives, published by Routledge in 2026. The volume examines how far right politics and news media shape one another, exposing, contesting, and at times inadvertently legitimising white supremacist, violent misogynist, and other far right ideas. Situating these dynamics within the neoliberal restructuring of media industries, the book demonstrates how commercial imperatives, audience capture, and shifts in journalistic practice intersect with longer histories of inequality, coloniality, and exclusion to curate and shape contemporary news environments. Drawing on research from Australia, the United States, Germany, Spain, and Portugal, the collection analyses how newsroom routines and editorial practices interact with far right strategies to influence coverage and, over time, recalibrate the parameters of public political debate.