Luciano Santander Hoces observed the radicalization of right-wing politics in his home country of Chile after mass demonstrations rocked the capital of Santiago in 2019, spurring demand for constitutional reform that has yet to be resolved. Since moving to Berlin in 2021, this experience has informed his doctoral research on political sociology and far-right studies at Freie Universität Berlin, an X-Student Research Group designed and led by him, and, most recently, a publication together with sociologist Nina Lotze of the University of Sheffield titled “Positionalities of elitist complicity: Building rapport and reducing asymmetries in interviewing the neoliberal right in Chile, Germany, and the UK” in the European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology (2025).

This article is the result of years of epistemological and methodological reflection developed over the course of Santander’s recently completed PhD. In his words, the publication “examines how researchers navigate ideological asymmetries, trust, and complicity when interviewing right-wing and far-right elites in polarized and often hostile environments.” Santander conducted fieldwork in Chile to inform these research findings, which, according to the researcher, seek to provide practical and ethical guidance for “generat[ing] knowledge about actors who often oppose democratic equality while still taking their perspectives seriously as research participants.” In the article, the authors argue how ongoing reflection on common positionalities allowed them to build rapport with far-right elites while carefully distinguishing between humanizing the informant and legitimizing their ideologies.

Having previously worked in both the private sector and public universities in Santiago de Chile, Santander found in Berlin the perfect international setting where he could reflect on the radicalization of political elites in Chile. His recent role as a PhD researcher at the Institute of Sociology at FU Berlin combines research, teaching, and public engagement in political sociology and far-right studies with a strong focus on qualitative approaches.

Santander received BUA funding through the X-Student Research Group program to design and teach the seminar “Comparative and Empirical Research on the Global Far Right,” where students combined empirical research on far-right politics in Europe and Latin America with in-depth discussions about the ethics of studying extremist actors in times of endangered democracies across continents. “Students engaged with questions of access, safety, positionality, and responsibility when researching contentious and sometimes violent movements,” shares Santander, reflecting on what BUA support has enabled.

X-Student Research Groups, part of BUA’s Student Research Opportunities Program (StuROPx) funding line, support research seminars led by junior scientists, allowing students to gain early research experience while promoting teaching coupled with research practice. According to Santander, the X-Student Research Group created “a space where research, teaching, and methodological reflection can be tightly interconnected, and where early-career researchers and students can collectively shape better practices for studying difficult topics.”

Berlin’s rich academic ecosystem is not the only thing that caught Santander’s attention. A lively political and cultural hotspot, paired with “a long history of confronting difficult pasts and contested presents,” is, according to Santander, an important reason for his residence here. “For someone working on far-right politics, democracy, and inequalities,” he shared, “this city is both an inspiring and challenging place to think about. Here, debates about the far right and authoritarianism are not abstract—they are embedded in institutions, streets, and everyday social relations.”

On a personal level, Santander remarked that his favorite place in Berlin is Tempelhofer Feld, where he walks with his dogs almost daily and almost always observes or discovers something new.