Polin Seminar on conspiracy

Welcome to the last Polin Seminar for this semester on Wednesday 10 December at 13.15-15.00 in Auditorium Theologicum, Annexet, Piispankatu 16. Possibility to join via Zoom https://aboakademi.zoom.us/j/65943977174 (Meeting ID: 659 4397 7174).

Program

13.15–13.25 Mercédesz Czimbalmos (Polin Institute, Åbo Akademi University): Introduction

13.25-14.05 Niko Pyrhönen (University of Helsinki): Stigma as Strategy: Conspiracy Theories and the Politics of Stigmatized Knowledge

14.05-15.00 Yevhen Minko (University of Jyväskylä): A Heavenly Jerusalem on Russian Bones: Russia’s Conspiracy Fantasy About Its War Against Ukraine

15.00 Coffee

Abstracts

Niko Pyrhönen (PhD): Stigma as Strategy: Conspiracy Theories and the Politics of Stigmatized Knowledge

This presentation examines the role of stigmatized knowledge in contemporary political and cultural mobilizations through the lens of conspiracy theories. Here, “stigmatized knowledge” denotes claims to truth deemed valid by proponents despite being dismissed by mainstream institutions. It argues for a status-based (rather than purely descriptive) definition of conspiracy theory, emphasizing that such narratives are defined by their marginal epistemic status more than by any intrinsic content. Using examples from populist movements (e.g., the Trump era), it shows how conspiracy narratives have been strategically re-legitimized not in spite of their stigma but through it—casting supporters as whistleblowers or heroes defying elite orthodoxy.

It considers the dual impact of the pandemic era: both a surge in conspiratorial content and a marked increase in mainstream critical engagement by ordinary people who found such theories disruptive to everyday life. Finally, the presentation explores how distinctions between “special” knowledge and stigmatized knowledge blur in public arenas, enabling political actors to harness esoteric or conspiratorial narratives for grassroots appeal or delegitimizing attacks. Grounded in a religious studies perspective yet engaging insights from sociology, political science, and media theory, it reflects on the aesthetic, moral, and sociological stakes of knowledge at the fringes of epistemic legitimacy.

Yevhen Minko: A Heavenly Jerusalem on Russian Bones: Russia’s Conspiracy Fantasy About Its War Against Ukraine

The talk will address a conspiracy fantasy that has proliferated in Russian and Ukrainian media since the onset of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014 — a fantasy about the creation of a new Jewish state, Heavenly Jerusalem, supposedly destined to arise in Ukraine’s occupied regions devastated by military action. Promoted by well-known Russian public figures and countless internet trolls, this fantasy seeks to reconceptualize the ongoing war of aggression as the result of a Jewish conspiracy against Russia. Its apparent purpose is to downplay the scale of the war and portray it instead as an intra-Russian conflict.

Yevhen Minko is a doctoral researcher in Political Science at the University of Jyväskylä. He received his MA with honours in History / Jewish Studies from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and was trained as a psychoanalyst at the International Institute of Depth Psychology, both in Ukraine. His research has been awarded with fellowships from the University of California, Los Angeles, the Central European University, and the Finnish National Agency for Education. He is also the author of six fiction and non-fiction books exploring themes of conspiracism, cognitive manipulation, and the instrumentalization of history.