Research Seminar: ”Hyphenated Histories in Times of Crisis: Studying American(ized) Conspiracy Theories in Denmark”.
 

• Time: 27 October 2025, 10:00–12:00
• Place: Nobelparken, Room 1481-366

Organizers: The American Studies Center Aarhus (ASCA) and the Cultural Transformations research program.

In the last 25 years, conspiracy theories have become an increasingly popular mode of explanation of societal crises in Denmark. Beginning with reactions to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001, conspiracy theories have been used to explain developments from the financial crisis to COVID-19, while also presenting a unified narrative of Western history in the 20th and 21st centuries.

This conspiratorial view of the world is adopted and adapted from American culture and history—not only in terms of its direct source material, but also as a mode of thinking and expression. Perhaps we can even talk of “American” as a conspiratorial language that is used to make sense of the world and to express disagreement with current Danish and international elites. This talk provides an outline of this development and attempts to make the case for the relevance of “hyphenated” histories, in this case the study of Danish-American conspiracy theories, to make sense of Danish perceptions of crises and our role in the world.

In addition to this main focus, the place of American studies in Denmark, given the shifting global sociopolitical landscape of the present, will also be considered.

Speaker bio:

Kasper Grotle Rasmussen is Associate Professor of American History at the Center for American Studies, University of Southern Denmark, where he currently researches the intellectual history of conspiracy theories in the United States (and Denmark) and American foreign policy under the wider umbrella of the history of America in the World/US foreign relations. He received his BA, MA, and PhD (2013) at Aarhus University.

 His publications include Conspiracy Theories and the Nordic Countries (Routledge, 2021, co-author); "9/11, COVID-19 og Onkel Reje: Konspirationsteorier i Danmark i det 21. århundrede", Økonomi og Politik, 2024, and "'America' as Conspiratorial Language: Americanization of Danish Conspiracy Theories in the Twenty-First Century", Journal of Transnational American Studies, 2025.