Date of Award
Fall 2023
Degree Type
Open Access Master's Thesis
Degree Name
History, MA
Program
School of Arts and Humanities
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair
Matthew Bowman
Dissertation or Thesis Committee Member
Nicola Denzey Lewis
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Rights Information
© 2023 Indra Jean Louise Chapman
Keywords
Anthropology, Anthropology of religion, Conspiracy theory, Mormon studies, Mormonism, QAnon
Subject Categories
Religion
Abstract
QAnon and other far-right conspiracies are significant fixtures within contemporary American culture. Through a series of interviews with two highly engaged QAnon conspiracy theorists who are also members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I analyzed QAnon as an epistemic formation characterized by critique of social conditions, modern standards of rigor in research, and a highly accelerated online information economy. Framing my subjects’ participation in QAnon culture alongside their Latter-day Saint identity allowed for further investigation into dynamics of competing epistemic authority and the role of Mormon identity in shaping conspiracy theory. Finally, I compare the epistemology of conspiracy theory to that of academic research, noting similarities and highlighting the role of legitimating authority within academic institutions.
ISBN
9798342762847
Recommended Citation
Chapman, Indra Jean Louise. (2023). Epistemology and Authority in Two Latter-day Saint QAnon Conspiracy Theorists. CGU Theses & Dissertations, 867. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/867.