Former Fellow

Pallavi Paul, Ph.D.

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Research project: A Speaking Fragment: Revisiting Indexicality
As a part of the ConTrust fellowship I seek to look at the ways in which the link between medical discourse, documentary and visual culture is being rearticulated with a pressing urgency in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This work builds on my doctoral thesis titled ‘From Ideology to the Fragment: Documentary Reimagined’ which interrogates the relationship between documentary and public truth in India. I argue that the contract between documentary, authenticity and truth has had to renew itself across various decades under the critical pressures exerted by film technologies, censorship regimes, changing political scenarios and channels of circulation. The implications it has then for democracy and social systems is crucial. Some of these ideas also undergird my current solo exhibition at Gropius Bau titled ‘How Love Moves’.

Events
5.June 2024 – June 7, 2024
Conference “Publicity and the Political in the Long 20th Century”
For further information: Click here…

  • Biografische Angaben

    Pallavi Paul's practice interrogates how the idea of 'truth' is produced and imaged in public life. Paul is particularly interested in poetic explorations of the tension between the document and its aesthetic utterance - the documentary. Her most recent solo exhibition took place as part of the Forum Expanded Berlinale at Savvy Contemporary (2022). Her work has been exhibited in venues including Berlinische Galerie (2022), The International Film Festival of Rotterdam (2021), HKW (2020), The Rubin Museum (2019), Beirut Art Centre (2018), AV Festival (2018, 2016), Contour Biennale (2017), Tate Modern (2013). Paul received her PhD in Cinema Studies from JNU, Delhi. She was the 2021 Visual Arts Fellow at the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. Her recent residencies include Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2023) with a solo exhibition following the residency and Alserkal Arts Residency (forthcoming, 2024).
  • Publikationen

    “Objects as Exhibits: Performances of the Forensic.” In Acts of Media. Los Angeles and Delhi: Sage, 2022 “De-authored Fragments: Understanding Pandemic Media.” Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies, 12, no. 3. “A Dividual Line Into The Past: Ten Fragments.” Contemporary Condition – the Last Resident. Edited by Verina Gfader. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2019. “The Work of Freedom in a World of Images.” Documentary Now. Marg (September 2018).

News from the research center

Event
08.07.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Krisenhafter Wandel der Gegenwart. Einige soziologische Beobachtungen

Lecture

Der Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Steffen Mau beschäftigt sich mit den Krisensymptomen des liberalen Gesellschaftmodells. Krisenhafter sozialer Wandel ist dadurch zu charakterisieren, dass er nicht allmählich, sondern abrupt vor sich geht und zur Destabilisierung bestehender Institutionen, Ordnungen und Normen führt. Zugleich sollte er von den Menschen auch als krisenhaft erlebt werden und mit Orientierungslosigkeit, Vertrauensverlust und erhöhten Spannungen einhergehen. Der Vortrag findet im Rahmen der Kantorowicz Lectures in Political Language statt.

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Event
18.04.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Das Prinzip Donald Trump und die Verrohung der Welt

Panel Discussion, Lecture

Ein neuer Politikstil macht international Karriere. Er ist gekennzeichnet von Vulgarität, Verrohung und erklärter Rechtsfeindschaft. Machtinteressen werden nicht mehr juristisch bemäntelt. Stattdessen wird das angebliche Recht des Stärkeren zur Staatsdoktrin gemacht – innenpolitisch wie außenpolitisch. Treibende Kraft hinter dieser Verrohung der politischen Sitten ist ein US-Präsident, der nicht nur die amerikanische Gesellschaft und Kultur, sondern auch die globale Ordnung nach seinen Vorstellungen und Interessen umgestaltet. Die Römerberggespräche wollen diesen Politikstil verstehen.

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Event
29.04.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Kulturindustrie heute?

Panel Discussion

Das Gespräch „Kulturindustrie heute?“ widmet sich der Aktualität und Tragfähigkeit eines zentralen Begriffs der Kritischen Theorie. Die Filmwissenschaftlerin Gertrud Koch diskutiert im Rahmen der Gesprächsreihe "Frankfurter Schule" mit dem Filmkritiker Bert Rebhandl die gegenwärtigen Formen kultureller Produktion und Verbreitung vor dem Hintergrund von Digitalisierung, Plattformen und globalen Medienmärkten.

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Event
20.03.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

40 Jahre Schengen-Raum

Colloquium

Der 1984 geschlossene Schengen-Vertrag schuf einen heute 29 Staaten umfassenden Raum ohne Binnengrenzen, doch Migration über die Außengrenzen führte zuletzt zur Wiedereinführung von Kontrollen, auch durch die Bundesregierung ab 8. Mai 2025. Das Walter Hallstein-Kolloquium diskutiert die rechtliche Zulässigkeit, wirtschaftliche Folgen insbesondere für Arbeitsmigration und Arbeitsmarkt sowie die Zukunft des Schengen-Raums.

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News
12.02.2026

Satanist politics and the decline of reason in liberal democracies

For the last time in the winter semester 2025/26, the Research Center hosted the lecture series "Am Scheidepunkt. On the crisis of democracy". At the end, philosopher Michael Rosen from Harvard University presented his concept of "satanic politics" as a variant of the political interpretation of the world.

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News
09.02.2026

On the topicality of the concept of violence based on Camus and Derrida

Prof. Dr. Christine Abbt from the University of St. Gallen gave a lecture on democracies and the concept of violence as part of the lecture series "At the crossroads? On the crisis of democracy", she gave a lecture on democracies and the concept of violence. Under the title "Defending democracies. On the topicality of the concept of violence in Camus and Derrida", the philosopher discussed forms of violence and revolt and categorized them with regard to a democratic setting.

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Publication
04.02.2026 | Journal article

New Perspectives on Trust in International Conflicts

Wille, Tobias; Simon, Hendrik; Daase, Christopher; Deitelhoff, Nicole; Wheeler, Nicholas J.; Holmes, Marcus; Rathbun, Brian C.; Acharya, Amitav; Mitzen, Jennifer (2026): „New Perspectives on Trust in International Conflicts“. In: International Studies Review 28 (1), viaf027.

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News
02.02.2026

States competing for people - David Owen on civil geopolitics

As part of the lecture series "At the Crossroads - The Future of Democracy", David Owen from the University of Southampton presented his concept of civil geopolitics.

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News
20.01.2026

Christine Hentschel on reorientation in catastrophic times

As part of the lecture series "At the crossroads? On the crisis of democracy", the sociologist spoke about living in and dealing with catastrophic times. Against the backdrop of the destruction of living conditions, wars, permanent crises and threats to democracy, Hentschel addressed the infiltration of the catastrophic into everyday social life and a changing activist and literary approach to the future.

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