12. Pop Goes the People—Populism, Panics, and Pandemics
Discourses of Crisis and the Study of Religion - Lauren Horn Griffin
Carmen Celestini [+]
University of Waterloo
Carmen Celestini is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Queen’s University and a Definite-Term Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo. Her research focuses on improvisational conspiracy, the overlapping belief systems of apocalyptic Christian thought and conspiracy theories, and the impact of these beliefs on the North American political system.
Description
As QAnon, Pizzagate, COVID19 hoax theories, the Great Reset, and the topics of freedom, liberty, and religious persecution became the headlines of media sources, the content of social media memes and posts, the theoretical became reality. Teaching courses about these topics in For conference participant use only. Not for reproduction or distribution. Living in the midst of crisis has changed both my pedagogy but also my interactions with my students. Throughout the pandemic my syllabi have become more of a possible roadmap with an understanding that there will be forks in the road where we, instructor and students, will leave the chosen path and venture into the reality of what is occurring outside of the classroom walls.