Hate Studies: Looking Back, Driving Forward

The academic field of hate studies emerged from a moral and scholarly commitment to confront prejudice-motivated violence. While rooted in activism, the field has evolved into a diverse, interdisciplinary domain, examining how societies construct, normalise, and enact the hierarchisation and dehumanisation of difference. Drawing on plenary contributions from the 2024 International Network for Hate Studies (INHS) Biennial Conference, this commentary reflects on the field’s development, current trajectories, and evolving directions. We trace hate studies’ evolution from its activist origins to a global research area spanning law, criminology, psychology, and related disciplines. Central concerns include understanding the causes, consequences, and prevention of hate, alongside legal and criminological responses to hate crime. At the same time, the field faces conceptual tensions, particularly in defining “hate” and “hate crime,” and in delineating its disciplinary boundaries. The commentary also considers the promise of hate studies from a Global South perspective, where many contexts have been shaped by colonialism, economic exploitation, and enduring forms of exclusion. We therefore examine whether hate studies can adequately address these historical and structural continuities of colonial modernity. Contemporary manifestations of hate are also situated within broader global crises, including pandemic-related xenophobia and the resurgence of anti-immigrant sentiment associated with far-right populism. We further reflect on the ideological backlash against the field. Ultimately, we advocate for deeper collaboration between Global North and Global South scholars to advance methodological innovation, epistemic pluralism, conceptual precision, and praxis-oriented research and policy translation, to strengthen hate studies as a rigorous and globally relevant discipline.