Conspiracy theories and the socialist past

Boris Noordenbos (© Bob Bronshoff) - Boris Noordenbos receives ERC Starting Grant for research into conspiracy-based narratives Many classic conspiracy theories concern the withholding of information from the public. In Central and Eastern Europe, however, suspicion is more commonly aimed at outside influences. Thanks to an ERC Starting Grant - a personal grant comprising about €1.5 million - Boris Noordenbos (Slavic Studies, Literary and Cultural Analysis) will spend the next few years researching how conspiracy theories circulate through Eastern Europe and how they derive their rhetorical force from references to the socialist past. Recent years have seen a booming academic interest in conspiracy theories, but most of this research focuses on Western Europe and the United States. 'Academic literature still frequently discusses 9/11 and the assassination of Kennedy. Many insights into conspiracy theories are based on these kinds of Western examples, but in other parts of the world, the conspiracy culture is very different.' - Undermining outside influences. Conspiracy-based narratives are not isolated or rooted in the present, but are connected with past experiences.