17 May 2016 5:00pm - 7:00pm SG1, CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT

Description

A public lecture by Professor Dr Michael Butter (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)

Abstract

While conspiracy theories constituted legitimate knowledge in the United States in the past, they have lost this status in the present. Yet, they still possess commonsensical appeal. The continuing attraction of their stigmatized knowledge is nowhere more powerfully dramatized than in the novels of Dan Brown, which all evoke large-scale conspiracies that then turn out not to be true at all. At the same time, conspiracy theorizing might be changing its status again, as the successes of Donald Trump, who has embraced various conspiracy theories, during the Republican primaries suggest.

Michael Butter is Professor of American Studies at the University of Tübingen. He is the author of Plots, Designs, and Schemes: American Conspiracy Theory from the Puritans to Present (2014) and has written various essays on different aspects of conspiracy theory. He also was the main proposer of the COST Action “Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories” which brings together scholars from more than thirty countries and a dozen disciplines to explore European conspiracy theories for the next four years.

This event is open to all and will be followed by a wine reception. 

This is part of a series of public talks from the Leverhulme-funded project Conspiracy and Democracy. More information at http://www.conspiracyanddemocracy.org/

Enquiries – skg41@cam.ac.uk

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