Dr David Robertson

My work focuses on the social dynamics of knowledge in religions, conspiracy theories and beyond, as ways into thinking critically about religion, society and "belief". I am fascinated by unusual claims of knowledge in new and alternative spiritualities, and how media technology shapes our epistemic environment. I have also researched the history of the discipline, and particularly the tension between religious and social scientific approaches. Ultimately, I seek to deconstruct the colonial episteme which guides and limits how we understand the world.

My publications include UFOs, the New Age and Conspiracy Theories (2016), Gnosticism and the History of Religions (2021) and Religion and Conspiracy Theories: An Introduction (2024). I was co-editor of After World Religions (2016) and the Handbook of Conspiracy Theories and Contemporary Religion (Brill 2018).

I am currently co-editor of Implicit Religion: Journal of the Critical Study of Religion. I was also co-founder of the Religious Studies Project podcast.

Research interests

• Critical theory in the study of religion
• Conspiracy theories in, as or about religion
• Contemporary Gnosticism
• Disciplinary history and formation
• New Religious Movements
• Theory in Religious Studies 

I am currently Chair of A332 Why is Religion Controversial? Before this I was an Associate Lecturer on A227 Exploring Religion between 2017 and 2020, joining the Module Team in 2019. I have contributed a Module to the interdisciplinary course DD218 Understanding Digital Societies on "Disinformation, Misinformation & Conspiracies", and co-wrote a module (with John Maiden) on secularization and religious innovation the 1960s for A113 Revolutions.