In this special Spotlight, we highlight The Lizard People Don’t Want You to Read This, published by McFarland in 2025, a new edited collection that grew out of a SWPACA presentation from 2022.
Collection editor Robert Spinelli, archivist for Special Collections at Middle Tennessee State University and SWPACA participant, shares with us a few thoughts about the book.
📍 Tell us about the collection and how this grew out of your experience at SWPACA.
This collection takes on the task of exploring how conspiracy theories have emerged in various formats of popular culture in recent years. By approaching themes relating to conspiratorial thinking as found in film, literature and cultural contexts such as social media, the goal is to make a deeper exploration of the topic accessible and relatable to a broad audience. While the writers take on academic approaches to the topic, the specific pop culture examples explored should be familiar enough for readers to find something easily understood from The X-Files to comics such as Superman or the X-Men and Internet memes.
SWPACA 2022 was the first popular culture conference that I attended as a presenter and I found that it helped make it easier to engage in conversation with other attendees. Being exposed to the broad subject areas of the conference and the levels of interest in discussing conspiracy theories made it clear to me that an enthusiastic audience for the subject already existed. The timing of the conference in 2022 also came at a unique moment in which many people were becoming aware of these ideas that had existed a bit more quietly up until the COVID time period.
📍 How did your participation at SWPACA shape your thinking or direction of the project?
While I can’t say that participating helped shape my thinking on the topic, it did very directly lead to the project forming. Shortly after SWPACA, I assisted in a small way with another edited collection assembled by a different attendee and I decided to put together my own. It didn’t take long after this to get a CFP put together and start the long process of finding a suitable publisher, confirming participants, securing a contract, etc. I began to really understand the idea of a book being part of a larger process with many moving pieces, steps and unique challenges. I don’t think that I would have so readily embarked on this collection if it hadn’t been for my participation at SWPACA.
📍 What do you hope readers will take away from this collection?
My hope for this collection is that readers will not emerge from it with a sense of despair at all. I think that the essays do a thorough job of illustrating the prevalence of conspiratorial themes in various forms of popular culture as a narrative element in themselves. Although, clearly, conspiratorial thinking can be very problematic, it can also exist as an entertaining and compelling part of storytelling. Conspiracy theories are fascinating, complex and often contain values that are positive such as critical thought, individualism and a willingness to defy easy explanations. As conspiracy theories have continued to cross into the political realm and the embracing of continually more bizarre ideas; however, we have seen a darker side of the concept come into focus. Several of the essays examine how popular culture can cultivate heroic characters that combat conspiratorial antagonists such as the Ku Klux Klan. I would like to see readers and other researchers cling to the idea that popular culture can create stories and characters that are as compelling as conspiracy theorists in order to not debunk these ideas, but to create some sort of exciting counter narrative that will inspire enthusiasm for reasoned, critical thought with an epistemological foundation in reality.
📍 How has the conversation(s) about these topics shifted or changed since you initially began the project? And how do you see the intersection between pop culture and conspiracy theories evolving over the next few years, decade, etc.?
Contemporary focus on conspiracy theories continues to be an incredibly relevant and common theme to be explored in academic and non-academic circles. Because it is such a wide ranging and multi-layered topic, there are many disciplines that examine conspiracy theories and how they affect our society. Pop culture analysis offers an easy entry point into the various ways in which conspiracy theories have been portrayed throughout history and how they have become more mainstreamed over time. I think the brunt of the intersection between pop culture and conspiracy theories has already occurred and that it will only continue to deepen as the lines between pop and participatory culture continue to blur.
There is certainly room for further analysis, especially in the realm of social media, influencers and the insidious ways via which these ideas are transmitted through short form communication methods. As the stream of information continues to gain speed, diversify and embrace the ephemerality of communication it will be necessary for critics and scholars to adopt a similar approach to critiquing and exposing misinformation. Still more important, though, is the potential for popular culture studies to act as a means of inspiring the creation of cultural figures that will combat conspiratorial thinking from a different vantage point.
📍 What advice would you give to presenters or early-career scholars hoping to turn
conference work into a publication?
As far as conference work goes, I would say that the best advice I can pass on would be to go to as many different sessions as you can and not to be afraid to talk to people. Many academics are always looking for new projects/collaborations and are willing to begin conversations towards something new. Turning anything into a publication is difficult and can take a long time. Putting together a complete proposal will force you into thinking through the scope of the project and help to clarify its objectives as the document takes shape. Don’t be discouraged when one publisher says that they aren’t interested and pay attention to any feedback that they offer which seems useful. Finding a supportive, communicative publisher with transparent deadlines is key and will make the remainder of the process smooth. Lastly, don’t be afraid to ask for advice because the whole thing
can be overwhelming and confusing.
📢 Take a look at The Lizard People Don’t Want You to Read This for yourself on McFarland’s website, from your local library, or at SWPACA 2026’s exhibit room!
