Events

Disinformation and Power: Studies in Resilience, Vulnerability and Weaponisation of Information and Conspiracism

Lund University 10-14 August 2026

The school will bring together postgraduate students, professional researchers, and others to learn about disinformation and conspiracism. It will offer a space for focused reflection and critical discussion about various strategies for responding, recovering from, and mitigating risks, threats, and emergencies related to disinformation and conspiracism.

Recognising the severity of issues related to disinformation, the school is built on a premise that, in order to address the problem of disinformation, especially within the political sphere, we need to have a better understanding of disinformation itself, the digital and social infrastructures shaping its trajectories, as well as its diverse modalities and roles that it plays in our societies. Our approach is also grounded in the belief that in order to tackle the problem of disinformation we need to have a better awareness of the socio-cultural structures and political conditions that shape the resistance against disinformation. 

Thus, the objective of the school is to offer a simultaneous training on disinformation itself as well as the initiatives and strategies aimed at countering it. Utilising the strength of the interdisciplinary approaches linking humanities and social sciences, we will examine the field of disinformation and countering disinformation from the socio-political, yet culturally sensitive perspective. The school will offer training and discussion on the following topics:

• Information control – from controlling production (how information is produced) to what is produced (mis- and disinformation, or malign information) and how it is transmitted (information infrastructures, technologies and target groups);
• Disinformation infrastructures: Big Tech and AI
• Conspiracism as a cultural phenomenon;
• Conspiracism as a psychological phenomenon;
• Conspiracy theories, disinformation and Psychological Defense in a historical and transnational perspective;
• Weaponization of conspiracy theories and disinformation in politics;
• Disinformation as a security threat, threat amplifier and multiplier;
• Civil society and disinformation: from subjects of conspiracy theories to agents countering disinformation;
• Resisting disinformation: from vulnerability to responsibilization and securitization;
• Disinformation from the legal perspective.

The school will be run by the Nordren Project, a consortium of international researchers representing information studies, ethnology and anthropology, political science, psychology, history and security studies, with the support of the Humanities in War and Conflict Network (Lund University)

It will be hosted by the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University, Sweden, and it will take place from 10-14 August 2026. Upon the completion of the course, students will receive a certificate of attendance. The workload of the course will be equivalent of 4 ECST.

The school is structured as a one-week workshop or ‘laboratory,’ enabling students and participating researchers to work through challenges and opportunities related to their own research projects on disinformation and conspiracism. It will consist of diverse teaching methods: lectures, seminars, tabletop exercises (TTX) and/or roleplay, fieldtrips, online modules etc. 

Applicants are requested to send following documents to Ben Hogan ben.hogankultur.luse:

1. CV (please include the title of your PhD project)
2. Research statement (500 words) describing how your project links with the theme of the school. You can also include information regarding the topics you would like to work on during the course.

The deadline is 1 March 2026.

There is no fee for participating in the school. We are currently working to secure funding to support travel and accommodation costs for school participants. Students coming from outside of Sweden might be eligible for Erasmus funding to cover the costs of the school. When applying from outside of Sweden please let us know if you checked with your Erasmus office if they might have offer the funding support.

For more information please contact Ben Hogan at: ben.hogankultur.luse

Organisers

• Lunds universitet (main)
• Oslo Metropolitan University
• UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø
• University of Iceland
• University of Southern Denmark
• Bifrost University
• University of Helsinki
• Swedish Defense University