You’re so paranoid, you probably think this course is about you. This seminar investigates “paranoid style” in the arts. From the Greek para–nous, “beyond mind,” the course examines how artists imagine and depict malevolent forces, coordinated antagonism, and systematized persecution. Course modules focus on exemplary artworks, artists, and exhibitions, from the historical avant-gardes to the present. Topics addressed include: government conspiracy, surveillance, corporate collusion, paramilitary organizations, globalization, dominant cultures and counter-cultures, racial and ethnic prejudice, cryptozoology and pseudoscience, nativism and extraterrestrial invasion, the “imagination of disaster,” and hoaxes. Amid these topics, the course explores theories of recording and inscription, indexicality and medium-specificity, Cold War cultures of containment, disciplinary societies to societies of control, postmodernism and discourses of proof and evidence, applied anthropology in the War on Terror and “forever wars,” to recent rhetorics of fake news and alternative facts, and the implications of machine learning. Case studies are complemented by readings in literature, political science, philosophy, media studies, history of science, journalism, and security studies. Film screenings, performances, and exhibition visits will enrich our investigations. Someone is always watching: let it be us.