Book Project
Barbarians At the Gate: Nativist Religious Rhetoric in Central Europe
In the context of declining European religiosity, why is political religious rhetoric not only prevalent, but increasing? What explains variation in distribution and content and what are the political implications? Through the compilation of an original dataset of Central European religious appeals from Austrian, Croatian, Czech, German, Hungarian, Polish, Slovakian, and Slovenian nativist party platforms between 1990-2018, this project demonstrates that changes in the distribution of religious demographics— religiosity and religious populations—provide a catalyst for religious rhetoric but not an explanation for type of appeal. Instead, the historical role religious identities played in the development of nationality myths explains how parties deploy religious rhetoric in the present. More specifically, how religious in-groups or out-groups are associated with moments of nationality crystallization determine the extent to which they are positively or negatively associated with a nationality myth, granting a political salience upon which nativist parties can capitalize.
Select Publications
Rosenberg, Emma. 2023. “Barbarians at the Gate: Nativist Religious Rhetoric and Defining the `People’ by Who They Are Not,” Party Politics 29 (6), 1113-1129.
Rosenberg, Emma. 2023. “Taking the ‘Race’ out of ‘Master Race’: The Evolving Role of the Jew in White Supremacist Discourse.” Nationalities Papers 1-25.
Hoffman, Michael and Emma Rosenberg. 2032. “Religious Behavior and Veil Bans.” Politics, Groups, and Identities 11(4): 854-875.
Rosenberg, Emma. 2021. “Amish and Hasidic Litigation: A Survival Strategy.” Church & State 63 (3): 485-505.
Rosenberg, Emma and Amy Erica Smith. 2021. “What Drives Religious Politicking? Unpacking Modernization Theory.” Politics and Religion 14 (4): 735-763.
Rosenberg, Emma. 2019. “Germany’s Christian Democrats.” In the Oxford Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion. Oxford University Press.
Working Papers
“Christian Nationalism in the United States and Europe: A Comparison” (with Ben Gaskins, Lewis and Clark)
“Exclusive Citizenship, Religious Identities and Nativist Parties in Croatia and Slovenia” (with Bojan Francuz, NYU)
“Unlikely Bedfellows: Racial and Religious Tokenization in the Far-Right”
“War Makes the Citizen: Hurdles to Muslim Burial in Europe” (with Clare O’Hare, University of Notre Dame)
“Opening the Church Doors: Subnational Integration of Muslims in Germany”