Contribution short abstract:

I invite fellow scholars to follow Alan Dundes's famous "Who are the Folk" to explore conspiracy theories in academia. The talk will concentrate on the Russophone and Estonian conspiratorial discussions following the arrest of Professor of Vyacheslav Morozov for espionage for Russia.

Contribution long abstract:

The folklorist Alan Dundes once posed the question “Who Are the Folk?” and determined that “among others, we are!” (Dundes 1978, 20), meaning that academics also share all sorts of folk narratives, and there is much to learn from analyzing them. This conclusion has been celebrated in theory; however, it rarely has been applied in practice, as scholars of conspiracy theories, rumors, and similar genres tend to gravitate toward studying stories that we know to be untrue. Following conspiracy theories implies being the opposite of an intellectual or an academic. Given that scholars have continuously called for the demarginalization of conspiracy theories and theorists, looking at our own conspiratorial thinking might be the boldest way to begin putting this into practice, to get rid of the “paranoid” labels we have struggled against for so long. For this, I suggest looking at the conspiracy talk that followed the arrest of the University of Tartu Professor Vyacheslav Morozov accused of espionage for Russia. This paper explores conspiracy-based tropes that emerged around this legal case in Russophone, Estonian, and Anglophone academic circles. I explore both (allegedly) left-leaning and conservative discourses as well as the newest themes of conspiracy talk (including the critique of “woke” culture), which sometimes ironically intertwine.