Heyman Center; Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life; Department of Religion; Department of Germanic Languages
We live in anxious times where the unfolding powers of social media and AI have led to a surge of rumors, conspiracy, and disinformation. But this is not new. Media revolutions have frequently joined with populist ferment to create monsters. From Luther’s attack on the Pope to our current moment, this conference examines the media histories of rumors, disinformation and conspiracy theory.
Register here.
More information on the SOF/Heyman website.
PROGRAM
Thursday, October 17, 2024
6-8pm | Public Roundtable with Sareeta Amrute, Rivka Galchen, and Zeve Sanderson
How do we account for our seemingly unprecedented crisis in which close to 40 percent of Americans believe that the 2020 election was stolen? Will the distinction between facts and falsehoods, already destabilized by social media, be completely undone by AI? This roundtable gathers experts to shed light on the confluence of technological, social, and political factors that are shaping our current precarious moment.
Sareeta Amrute, Associate Professor of Strategic Design and Management The New School for Social Research
Rivka Galchen, Staff writer at The New Yorker, Assistant Professor of Writing at Columbia University
Zeve Sanderson, Executive Director, NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics
Friday, October 18, 2024
9:15pm | Opening remarks
9:30-11am | Panel One: Thinking Conspiracy, Thinking Media
Francis Cody, Associate Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies, University of Toronto
Nico Baumbach, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Columbia University
Atmospheres of Doubt
Lisa Wedeen, Mary R. Morton Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College and Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory, University of Chicago
Chair
Brian Larkin, Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College
11:30am-1pm | Panel Two: Media and the Dark Side of Collectives
The Pope Ass: Rumors, Pamphlets, and Propaganda
Stefan Andriopoulos, Professor of Germanic Languages, Columbia University
Sebastian Brant’s Political Divination: Providence, Print, and Prodigies
Eli Cumings, Society of Fellows, Columbia University
Vernacular Research Cultures in Conspiratorial Communities
Alice E. Marwick, Associate Professor of Communication, University of North Carolina
Chair
Matthew Engelke, Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion, Columbia University
2-3:30pm | Panel Three: AI, Propaganda, and Misinformation
Thin Fakes, AI, and the Rhythms of Political Rumor
Sahana Udupa, Professor of Media Anthropology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
Hallucinating Machines
Susan Lepselter, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Indiana University
Seeing Isn't Believing: AI Propaganda and Unreality on Demand
Will Oremus, Technology news analysis writer, The Washington Post
Chair
Dennis Tenen, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University
4pm-4:30pm | Concluding Discussion
Organized by Brian Larkin, Matthew Engelke, and Stefan Andriopoulos.