Hi!

My name is Kimberley Campbell. I am a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto. I am a Cinema Studies major, doubling minoring in English and Linguistics. 

MY LEARNING GOALS: 

• To be patient.
• To understand human nature through conspiracies, social media, and the rise of new religious movements.
• To learn how to approach case studies regarding various theories of vast ideologies
• To analyze past theories critically and objectively.
• To be productive and proud in my coursework. 
• To engage in open discourse with fellow peers and instructors about different perspectives and philosophies. 
• To reflect on personal beliefs and understandings of my own life.

I did not expect to take this course. I struggled between course selection this year, constantly going back and forth between this course and that course. Pondering if I can survive that course? If I can I make it through this one? I was fearful of fumbling the metaphorical ball that is this class, which will determine my fourth year, in turn, the completion of my whole degree, which is my future, my aspirations, my dreams, my life. This great tumbling and fumbling of my life- to not drop the ball or just at least manage to maintain a grasp of it. Flailing as each responsibility, desire and outcome of such, causes our own balls of life to metastasize to the size it does. Why is it that we fumble? A possible inconsequential existence makes any fleeting moment of comfort towards another potential understanding of what is, what anything is, is something this course may bring for me. Perhaps I can have a greater grip on the ball if I can understand what it is and why we continue to carry it. 

Conspiracy narratives have always collected hushed gazes, an odd glance, or even observant side-eyes. A quick peek into the brain of another person; how their mind sees the world, how they have come to understand it. To see how the foundation of someone’s character is criticized through the ideologies they hold in their view of consciousness. The whisperings when someone’s perspective is far from the ethics of community they are surrounded by. Even more so when speculation gains popularity, as doubt begins to grow with the openness of possibility. I began an interest in the tellings of conspiracy, amateur or heavily researched, after my first introduction to conspiracy theories of the Catholic Church. The 2006 film, The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard, began my gaze towards the probability of factual conspiracy in the interpretations of what has come to be. The representation of religious institutions along with the reputation of their devoted believers creates ideas of past principles that may, in turn, illuminate the power, traditions, or perspectives of said religious organizations. Questions and questioning creating inner turmoil from where peace lived unbothered. The theories of the role of the Catholic Church became very prominent in my life, as some of my favourite films charted and plotted out the capacity of their conspiracist conjecture that entwined with known historical events. Seen in the Indiana Jones film series, and even moving towards the hidden overwhelming influence of various governmental groups in contemporary life; seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). The influence of media towards thrilling, or testimonial, or dangerous implications of conspiracy muddles the “normality” of one’s own comprehension of reality. The ripple effect of this development brought along a sonder effect; the realization of the complexity of each human life. What complexity in one’s life brought them to think this way, act this way, and be this way? Why must I figure it out? People of faith have faith for a reason. How do they maintain a grasp of it? I want to be able to unravel the logic and emotion behind various conspiracy theories, to discern their understanding of the truth.

:).