The apparently democratic character of referendums faces myriad critiques. One of them is the influence that the opinions of voters on other issues, whether or not relevant to the decision at hand, may exercise on their vote in a referendum. As this New York Times piece explains, when confronting complex choices, voters facing either information overload or information deficits might […]
An open lecture with Nicci Gerrard and Sean French (writers). ‘Story-telling is how we make sense of the world – especially the bits we don’t understand’ Two leading writers talk about how this surfaces in – and influences – their work. Join the Conspiracy and Democracy Project as we host Nicci Gerard and Sean French […]
A public lecture by Dr Turkay Nefes (Oxford), given on 3 February 2015 This is part of a series of public talks from the Leverhulme-funded project Conspiracy and Democracy. More information at http://www.conspiracyanddemocracy.org Summary What happens when a prime minister proposes conspiratorial accounts of a momentous event in a democracy? Although conspiratorial rhetoric is the […]
In 1940s New York, FBI alarm bells are ringing: the Existentialists are coming! J. Edgar Hoover has to know: what the hell is this Existentialism all about anyway – and is it some kind of code for Communism? He sets his agents on the trail of first Jean-Paul Sartre (1945) and then Albert Camus (1946). […]
How can we reconcile the sense that recent conspiracy theories can appear – to put not too fine a point on it – crazy, and clear evidence that they have had a broad, if often transient, appeal? Since 9/11, a succession of conspiracy theories have alleged that major incidents like the Aurora cinema shooting, the […]
A public talk by Dr Michael Hagemeister (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) with a response from Dr Reinhard Markner (Universität Innsbruck). Investigations into the origin and early history of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” often lead to the border between fiction (or mystification) and historical fact. Furthermore, one can observe how this border is crossed: […]
This talk explored Mark Twain’s perspective on conspiracy theory in late-nineteenth century America. In Twain’s time, public attitudes towards conspiracy theory went through a somewhat unusual change. Namely, conspiracy theory was becoming increasingly identified with amusement and entertainment. Figures such as Josiah Strong and Ignatius Donnelly drew enormous crowds and sold bestselling books by offering […]
On Tuesday 14th October the writer and broadcaster David Aaronovitch visited the project and gave this public lecture on conspiracy theories in an age of transparency, and discussed more recent conspiracy theories. He also discussed developments since he wrote his book, “Voodoo Histories”.
Project Director Professor David Runciman spoke to the Humanities Society at Wolfson College, Cambridge University in May 2014. Arguments about climate change are rife with conspiracy theories. There are those who think the whole thing is a giant hoax: a scam cooked up by environmentalists and left-wing scientists to empower governments and rip off consumers. […]
Since the time of the abbé Barruel, the French Revolution – the source of democratic claims eventually the world over – has been unmasked as the outcome of a dark conspiracy. This talk examines some of the contemporary legacies of this claim about the secret agenda of democratic self-rule, with a focus on some famous […]