The conference Engaging with Conspiracy Theories, Fostering Democracy: Dynamics, Drivers and Defenses will be held at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague on April 9 and 10, 2026. Its aim is to bring together researchers working on conspiracy theories in the context of disinformation studies and related fields, within the broader field of disinformation/misinformation studies or related disciplines, while also preparing the ground for the foundation of a future learned society on conspiracy theories.
The organizers welcome individual papers, posters, and panel submissions. All modes of scholarly contributions should be submitted by no later than December 5th, 2025, to the local Organisation Committee on Petr.Janecek@ff.cuni.cz and Leonardo.Schiocchet@ff.cuni.cz. Participation is free, and there will be no conference fees.
The conference is organized as part of the EU HORIZON project TaCT-FoRSED (Tackling Conspiracy Theories by Fostering Resilience and Political Self-Efficacy in Democracies). The project was launched in February 2025 and brings together a consortium of nine partners, mostly universitites (University of Passau), University of Leipzig, University of Manchester, Autonomous University of Barcelona, University of Granada, Charles University) helped by other learned institutions dealing with the topic (Democracy Centre Vienna, MODUS Research and Innovation, Prague Security Studies Institute) from 5 EU countries (Austria, Czechia, Germany, Spain, the UK).
The Charles University part of the project is administered by the Institute of Ethnology and Central European and Balkan Studies of the Faculty of Arts, namely by the national project leader, doc. Petr Janeček, with the help of Dr. Leonardo Schiocchet, students of the M.A. Study Programme Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, and several administrative employees from the Faculty of Arts.
