University of Montevallo professor to serve as visiting scholar at Cambridge University

Published 10:33 am Tuesday, January 28, 2014

By GINNY COOPER/ Staff writer

MONTEVALLO—University of Montevallo professor Alex Berniger is slated to serve as a visiting scholar for the Conspiracy and Democracy Project based at the University of Cambridge and funded by The Leverhulme Trust.

Beringer (contributed)

Beringer (contributed)

The Conspiracy and Democracy Project is a five-year, interdisciplinary research project that aims to explore questions related to conspiracy theories.

Beringer will serve as scholar-in-residence at Cambridge for two weeks in October.

“I’ll be attending seminars and giving public speeches among other things,” he said.

Beringer will deliver a public lecture based on his book project “The Pleasures of Conspiracy in American Literature and Culture 1865-1910,” which “explores late-nineteenth-century American culture by showing how writers between 1865 and 1910 developed and responded to conspiracy narratives as a form of pleasure,” according to Beringer’s book project description.

“I’m excited and humbled,” Beringer said. “Any time a place like that takes interest, it’s always an honor.”

Bringer, who is an assistant professor at the University of Montevallo, said that he loves teaching at the university.

“The University of Montevallo is such a cool institution,” he said. “As a public liberal arts college it is very unique, and all of the students are really, really excited to be there.”