Englisches Seminar

Prof. Dr. Michael Butter

Professor

Michael Butter has been Professor of American Literary and Cultural History at the University of Tübingen since 2014. He received his PhD from the University of Bonn in 2007 and his Habilitation from the University of Freiburg in 2012. He is the author of five monographs: The Epitome of Evil: Hitler in American Fiction, 1939–2002 (New York: Palgrave, 2009), Plots, Designs, and Schemes: American Conspiracy Theories from the Puritans to the Present (Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2014), Der »Washington-Code«: Zur Heroisierung amerikanischer Präsidenten, 1775-1865 (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2016), “Nichts ist, wie es scheint”: Über Verschwörungstheorien (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2018), a German introduction to conspiracy theories aimed at a general audience, which was translated into Polish, Portoguese and English as The Nature of Conspiracy Theories (London: Polity, 2020), and From Panem to the Pandemic: An Introduction to Cultural Studies (Tübingen: Narr, 2023), a textbook for first-year students. 

He is the Principal Investigator of the ERC project "Populism and Conspiracy Theory" (PACT) and one of the PI's of the CHANSE project "Researching Europe, Digitalisation and Conspiracy Theory" (REDACT). 

His expertise is frequently sought by media outlets in Germany, Europe and North America, and he has contributed op-eds to, among others, Die Zeit, FAZ, Der Spiegel and The Conversation. Michael Butter is a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He serves on the advisory board of veritas, which offers counseling for people affected by conspiracy theory. In July 2021, he was awarded the Tübingen Prize for Knowledge Communication.


Research Interests

Michael Butter’s research interests include conspiracy theories and populism, the colonial period and the Early Republic, popular culture, the poetics of contemporary TV shows, the construction of heroes and their cultural functions, and American culture after 9/11. 

Recent Publications

2024

  • (ed. with Katerina Hatzikidi, Constanze Jeitler, Giacomo Loperfido, and Lili Turza) Populism and Conspiracy Theory: Case Studies and Theoretical Perspectives. London/New York: Routledge, 2025. View online
  • “Introduction.” Populism and Conspiracy Theory: Case Studies and Theoretical Perspectives. Ed. Michael Butter et al. London/New York: Routledge, 2025. 1-11.
  • (ed.) Conspiracy Theories. Focus of American Book Review 45.1 (2024). https://americanbookreview.org/focus-conspiracy-spring-2024/
  • “Introduction.” American Book Review 45.1 (2024): 1-4. https://americanbookreview.org/focus-conspiracy-spring-2024/
  • “Rev. of Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019.” American Book Review 45.1 (2024): 22-26.

2023

  • From Panem to the Pandemic: An Introduction to Cultural Studies (Tübingen: Narr, 2023). https://www.narr.de/from-panem-to-the-pandemic-an-introduction-to-cultural-studies-18444/

  • “Die psychologische Forschung aus Sicht der Kulturgeschichte.” Die Psychologie der Verschwörungstheorien: Von dunklen Mächten sonderbar belogen. Ed. Roland Imhoff. Göttingen: hogrefe, 2024. 157-175. 

  • “Conspiracy Theories as Populist Counter-Narratives.” Subversive Semantics in Political and Cultural Discourse: The Production of Popular Knowledge. Ed. Gesa Mackenthun and Jörn Dosch. Bielefeld: transcript, 2023. 21-45. 

  • (ed. with Peter Knight) Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective. London/New York: Routledge, 2023. Available in open access: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003330769

  • (with Peter Knight) “Introduction: Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective.” Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective. Ed. Michael Butter and Peter Knight. London: Routledge, 2023. 3-12.

  • “Conspiracy Theories in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.” Covid Conspiracy Theories in Global Perspective. Ed. Michael Butter and Peter Knight. London: Routledge, 2023. 208-20.

2022

  • “Conspiracy Theory after Trump.” Social Research: An International Quarterly 89.3 (2022): 787–809.
  • “Verschwörungstheorien zu 9/11.” Asiatische Studien – Études Asiatiques. Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Asiengesellschaft – Revue de la Société Suisse-Asie 76.2 (2022): 231–46.
  • “Eine gute Ausgangsposition. Verschwörungstheorien als Herausforderung für die Demokratie.” Zur Zukunft der Demokratie. 36 Perspektiven. Ed. Frank-Walter Steinmeier. München: Siedler, 2022. 141-148.

2021

  • “Bad History, Useless Prophecy: The ‘Paranoid Style’ Revisited.” symploke 29.1/2 (2021): 21–42. [Peer- reviewed]
  • “Conspiracy Theories – Conspiracy Narratives.” DIEGESIS. Interdisciplinary E-Journal for Narrative Research/Interdisziplinäres E-Journal für Erzählforschung 10.1 (2021): 97–100.
  • (with Birte Christ) “9/11 – Der 11. September 2001.” Die Geschichte hinter dem Bild. Ed. Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen. Erfurt: LZT, 2021.
  • “Why Do We Believe in Conspiracy Theories?” Cicero Foundation Great Debate Paper 23.3. (2021): 1–16.
  • “Das Bild Amerikas in Hollywoodfilmen und Fernsehserien.” Länderbericht USA. Eds. Andrew Denison et al. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2021. 311–320. Print.
  • “Verschwörungstheorien: Eine Einführung.” Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 71.35–36 (2021): 4–11. Print.

Projects

Current

The ERC-funded project “Populism and Conspiracy Theory (PACT)” investigates the significance of conspiracy theories for populist movements in four European countries and two in the Americas. The project is scheduled to run until March 2025. The PI, Michael Butter, and his team (one postdoc and four PhD students) will employ a combination of discourse analysis and ethnographic methods to study the connections between populism and conspiracy theories in online and offline discourses in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Brazil and the United States. Michael Butter will focus on right- and left-wing populism during the 2020 presidential election campaigns.

The CHANSE-funded project "Researching Europe, Digitilisation and Conspiracy Theory (REDACT)" analyzes how digitalization shapes the form, content, and consequences of conspiracy theories, including online sociality and offline actions and effects. Rather than see digitalisation as a process that has universal outcomes, or conspiracy theories as the same over space and time, REDACT considers online conspiracy theories and counter-publics in different European regions (Western Europe, Central Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans) in order to make robust and nuanced recommendations about conspiracy theories—a particularly durable form of mis- and disinformation—for policy makers, media regulators, fact-checking and extremism-monitoring organisations, as well as the internet companies themselves.

Completed

Between 2016-2020, The COST Action “Comparative Analysis of Conspiracy Theories”  synthesized and moved forward the European research on conspiracy theories. The network comprised more than 160 scholars from 40 countries and over a dozen disciplines. In March 2020, the Routledge Handbook for Conspiracy Theories was published which provides the most comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon to date. Additionally, recommendations for dealing with conspiracy theories, educational material and an extended bibliography of academic research on conspiracy theories have been made available for the project website.

In 2016 and 2017 Michael Butter worked on a general introduction to conspiracy theories which was published to great acclaim in 2018. The updated and revised English translation was published by Polity Press in fall 2020.

Between 2012 and 2016, Michael Butter was a member of the Collaborative Research Center “Heroes – Heroizations – Heroisms” at the University of Freiburg and directed a project on “New Washingtons? The Heroization of American Presidents from the Revolution to Reconstruction.” He wrote a short monograph about this topic as well as articles on the heroization of William Henry Harrison and Donald Trump. Another important outcome of the project is a database of nearly 2,000 poems written on American presidents between 1789 and 1865.

Between 2009 and 2012, Michael Butter worked on the history of conspiracy theories in American culture from the Puritans to the present. The resulting monograph, which focuses on the 19th century, was published in 2014.

Between 2005 and 2008, Michael Butter was a member of the network “The Futures of (European) American Studies,” which discussed possible venues for the discipline in the 21st century. Funded by the German Research Council, the project organized a number of conferences and edited a collection of essays.

Between 2004 and 2007, Michael Butter pursued a PhD project that investigated how American literature employs the figure of Adolf Hitler to negotiate genuinely American concerns. The project resulted in a monograph published in 2009 and a number of articles on literary and visual representations of Hitler, Nazism and the Holocaust and the genre of alternate history in which they frequently occur.


Talks, Presentations and Media Appearances

2024

  • "Republic of Crazy: Lügen und Verschwörungstheorien sind der «grosse unsichtbare Motor» der USA – und das nicht erst seit Donald Trump". Zitiert in einem Beitrag der NZZ, 20.04.2024.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien selbst sind meist nicht das Problem". Interview im Schwäbischen Tagblatt, 05.03.2024. 
  • "Wir wussten nicht, was da auf uns zukommt“: Vortrag vom Verschwörungstheoretiker Veikko Stölzer fällt aus". Zitiert in einem Beitrag der Kreiszeitung, 15.02.2024.
  • "USA - Wahlkampf der Religionen", Radiointerview mit dem ORF, 07.02.2024.

2023

  • "Verschwörungstheorien und Desinformation: Aufklärung durch Wissenschaftskommunikation?" Podiumsdiskussion mit Klaus Gestwa und Elena Riedlinger, moderiert von Christopher Gohl. Weltethos-Institut, Tübingen, 29.11.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien in der Schule". Online-Gespräch mit Bodo Priebe, Bad Uracher Forum für Schulentwicklung, 22.11.2023.
  • "Warum glauben Menschen an Verschwörungen?" Vortrag beim Festival "Die große Menschenschau", Luzern, 31.10.-04.11.2023.
  • "Populismus und Verschwörungstheorie". Vortrag im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Jenseits des Postfaktischen: Wahrheit, Fiktion und Konspiration in Diskursen der Gegenwart" an der Universität Basel, Basel, 31.10.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien: Ursachen und Umgang". Vortrag im Rahmen der Tagung "Politischer Extremismus" der Deutschen Richterakademie, Trier, 09.-13.10.2023.
  • "Ich mach mir die Welt ... Verschwörungstheorien". Podiumsdiskussion mit Helene Merz und Kiril Denisov. Katholische Hochschulgemeinde Tübingen, 05.07.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien: Mythen und Wahrheit". Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen in Entringen, 28.06.2023.
  • "Blick in die USA: Vorbote für Deutschland?" Vortrag im Seminar "Verschwörungserzählungen: Warum sie entstehen, wen sie entfachen und was wir ihnen entgegnen können". Georg-von-Vollmar-Akademie, Kochel am See, 26.30.06.2023.
  • "Populism and Conspiracy Theories" und "A Short History of Conspiracy Theories". Vorträge im Rahmen der Summer School "Denialism and Conspiracy Theories in EU: Logic and Political Forms" der Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, 19.-23.06.2023. 
  • "Falschinformationen im Kontext von Verschwörungstheorien". Online-Fortbildung "Fake News - nicht mir!". Zentrum für Schulqualität und Lehrerbildung Baden-Württemberg, 13.06.2023. 
  • "Verschwörungstheorien - eine Herausforderung für die Demokratie?" Domforum, Köln, 23.05.2023.
  • "Studientag Verschwörungstheorien". Polizeiseelsorge Oberbayern, Rosenheim, 25.04.2023. 
  • "Verschwörungstheorien". Workshop "Fake News erkennen und enttarnen" der Pioneer Foundation, Berlin, 14.05.2023.
  • "#WTF - Corona aus dem Labor?" Interview in einer ZDF-Info Dokumentation, 19.04.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien als demokratische und sicherheitspolitische Herausforderung". Jugend Medien Programm der Bundeswehr, Strausberg, 14.04.2023. 
  • "The Whaler and the Scrivener: Ambivalent Narrators and the Transformation of Capitalism in "Bartleby" and Moby-Dick". Online-Vortrag der Veranstaltung "Sailing into Madness", Universität Izmir und Universität Tübingen, 03.-05.04.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien als Herausforderung für die Wissenschaft". Vortrag bei der Veranstaltung "Wissenschaftsreflexion: Konzepte - Ziele - Perspektiven", Leopoldina, Halle ander Saale, 29.-30.03.2023. 
  • "Sprengstoff Verschwörungstheorien: Entstehung und Verbreitung". Vortrag an der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Magdeburg, 22.03.2023. 
  • "Verschwörungstheorien: Eine Gefahr für die Demokratie?" Vortrag bei der SPD Überlingen, 14.03.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien: Warum sie so erfolgreich sind". Vortrag an der Volkshochschule Schwäbisch Hall, 07.03.2023.
  • "Deutsche Verschwörungsmythen: Reichsbürger und Querdenker". Auftritt in der Sendung Terra X History des ZDF, 05.02.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien: Formen - Funktionen - Folgen". Online-Vortrag für seniorenportal.de, 02.03.2023.
  • "Warum glauben Menschen an Verschwörungen?" Kinder-Universität Ertingen, 01.02.2023. 
  • "Historical approaches to disinformation and conspiracy theories ". European Digital Media Observatory Online Training with Michael Butter and Nicolas Guilhot, 23.01.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien: Eine Einführung". Vortrag an der Volkshochschule Wolfsburg, 24.01.2023. 
  • "Verschwörungstheorien: Eine Gefahr für die Demokratie?" Vortrag an der Volkshochschule Wolfsburg, 23.01.2023. 
  • "WEF-Verschwörungs­theorien: Sie haben Angst vor einer neuen Welt­ordnung". Michael Butter im Gespräch mit dem Schweizer Tagesanzeiger, 19.01.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien: Eine Einführung". Vortrag am Jour Fixe der Bibliothekar*Innen der Universität Tübingen, 19.01.2023.
  • "Verschwörungstheorien zwischen Fakten, Fiktion, Wahrheit und Lüge". Ambrosianum, Tübingen, 09.01.2023.