Conspiracy Theory

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

What is a conspiracy theory? And what distinguishes it from social theory and social theorizing? In this course, these questions will guide our exploration of the epistemological and ethical distinctions made between these allegedly different forms of knowledge by looking at different conspiracy theories from the around the world. Are conspiracy theories symptomatic expressions of paranoia and social anxiety that emerge out of an increasingly opaque and unfathomable political-economic and social order? Or are they the cultural legacy of the Cold War and clandestine statecraft? Does labeling a theory “conspiratorial” simply function as a strategy to disregard counterhegemonic ways of making sense of the world? And what do we make of the fact that political and economic conspiracies have been uncovered by journalists, law enforcement, and academic researchers?