This one-day research workshop will explore new critical perspectives on conspiracy theory and mis/disinformation discourse. The ongoing boom in applied academic research to diagnose and debunk conspiracy theories and mis/disinformation is driven by understandable anxieties about the dangers such material can pose. Nevertheless, like ‘terrorism’ – as Critical Security Studies has shown – the label ‘conspiracy theory’ proves in practice to be disturbingly malleable and is now also routinely used to discredit dissenting or unpalatable opinion, contrary to the spirit of critical enquiry and in ways which threaten democratic values. Like ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’, the label ‘conspiracy theory’ positions designated opinions beyond the sphere of legitimate democratic debate, tagging them in readiness for digital destruction and marking their bearers for segregated exclusion.

Interdisciplinary conference organised by the Rethinking Spatial Humanities cluster.  

All details about the conference programme and the Teams link can be found here. 

https://mapmattersconference.wordpress.com/

Please join us for a short seminar on carnivalesque creativity, political mobilisation and collective artmaking! With invited speaker Dr. Elena Merino Rivera (UNIR). Organised by the Memory, Commemoration and Uses of the Past research cluster of the Centre for Advanced Study in Languages and Cultures; Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies; the Department of Music and SENSA Lab UCC.

Monday 18 May 2026 from 10.00-11.30 am in North Tower Room 2.

Venue: The Granary Theatre 

Dates: Saturday 9th May at 6pm and Sunday 10th May at 2.30pm

For the final event in our inaugural research seminar programme, the Political Technologies cluster is delighted to welcome Professor Nidesh Lawtoo (Leiden) to UCC. Professor Lawtoo will speak at 4pm on Friday 27th March, in The Shtepps and online. This is the Teams link to join online.

All are very welcome to join us for any of the programme of talks and events organized by the Memory, Commemoration and Uses of the Past research cluster.

Debbie Ging, Professor of Digital Media and Gender in the School of Communications at Dublin City University and Director of the DCU Institute for Research on Genders and Sexualities, will be joining us in person at UCC on Thursday March 5 in the Shtepps at 4.15PM. All are welcome. Professor Ging's talk, "NoFappers, Tradwives, and Fitfluencers: the new ideological entrepreneurs of the manosphere", will zoom in on the manosphere; a diverse ecosystem of online anti-feminist and male supremacist groups that has been attracting scholarly attention for well over 10 years, but has only recently entered public debates. More recently, a constellation of economic, technological and socio-cultural factors has significantly transformed the size, reach and communicative politics of this online ecosystem, resulting in four key developments which distinguish it from the earlier manosphere; namely migrations to new platforms, mainstreaming and monetization, ideological and ethnic diversification, and overlap with other extreme ideologies, most of which are driven by recommender algorithms. 

In addition to the keynote on the poster, the event will also feature a keynote by Dr Kristin Dowell (Florida State University) entitled: “Beacons of Light: The Role of Digital Media in Native American Language Reclamation”.

The Translation and Creative Practice cluster announces its programme of events for the first half of 2026

The Rethinking Spatial Humanities research cluster have launched the schedule for seminar series 2025-2026.

Please join us.