This first year seminar explores the relationship between conspiracy theory and contemporary life through the discipline of anthropology. We learn how to read, discuss, and write about anthropological texts using conspiracy as a starting point. We trace the history of conspiracy theory, read ethnographies of conspiracy, and extend the concept of what counts as conspiracy to anthropological topics such as culture, class, ideology, myth, virtuality, race, affect, gender, and sexuality. We ask what the utility of conspiracy is in world-building, ritual, and belief structure inherent in both cultural cohesion and conflict. |