Next week I’ll be presenting some of my new research on the intersection of religion, conspiracy theories, and online extremism at the JCRT online conference, Religion, Politics, and Cognitive Warfare: Information, Interpretation, Conspiracy, and the Struggle for Reality.
My paper, “Religion, Conspiracies, and Hate: Orthobros and Catholic Crusades on Social Media,” looks at the growing use of crusader and medieval Catholic imagery online, including the Knights Templar, “Christ is King,” and other historical and religious narratives, and how these become entangled with conspiracy theories, nationalism, and extremist politics.
I’m particularly interested in what happens when imagined histories migrate through social media and become tools for constructing contemporary religious, extremist, and political identities.
I’ll be presenting Thursday, October 1, as part of the opening panel on Evangelicalism & Christian Nationalism.
The conference is online, and the full program and registration information are available here.