Please join us for a panel discussion to launch a new book, Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19, published by Routledge. The co-authors of this title, Clare Birchall (KCL) and Peter Knight (Manchester), will be joined by the journalist and author James Ball, journalist-researcher Annie Kelly and Digital Humanities lecturer Jonathan Gray (KCL), to discuss how conspiracy theories changed during the pandemic and how the pandemic was shaped by conspiracy theories, especially on social media. There will be a wine reception to follow.
26 January, 5.30-7pm, K2.29 (Council Room), King’s College London, The Strand, WC2R 2LS
The event is free, but attendees must register on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/conspiracy-theories-in-the-time-of-covid-19-discussion-and-book-launch-tickets-503347244157
Bios
James Ball is the editor of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a freelance writer and broadcaster, and is a columnist for The New European. He was previously a special correspondent at BuzzFeed UK and special projects editor at The Guardian. James is the author of multiple books, including Post-Truth, Bluffocracy, and The System: Who Owns the Internet and How it Owns Us.
Clare Birchall is a professor in the English Department at King’s College London. She is the author of several books including Knowledge Goes Pop, Radical Secrecy, and co-author of Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19. She is currently leading an EU-CHANSE funded project on conspiracy theories and digital culture across Europe.
Jonathan Gray is Senior Lecturer in Critical Infrastructure Studies at the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London. He is also Co-Founder of the Public Data Lab; Research Associate at the Digital Methods Initiative (University of Amsterdam) and the médialab (Sciences Po, Paris). He is working on Data Worlds: The Politics Open and Public Data in the Digital Age (for MIT Press) and co-edited books on scholarly communication infrastructures and data journalism practices.
Annie Kelly is a postdoctoral researcher based at King’s College London. Her doctoral work at the University of East Anglia analysed antifeminist and far right digital cultures. She is the UK correspondent for the QAnon Anonymous podcast, and her writing has appeared in Soundings, The Sociological Review and The New York Times.
Peter Knight is a professor of American Studies at the University of Manchester. He is the Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded “Everything Is Connected“ project. He also directed the Infodemic project, and the COMPACT network of conspiracy theory researchers. He is the author of many books including Conspiracy Culture, The Kennedy Assassination, and co-author of Conspiracy Theories in the Time of Covid-19.
