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

News
30.06.2025

Article "Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?" by Amadeus Ulrich published in EJPT

The article "Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?" by Amadeus Ulrich has just been published open access in the European Journal of Political Theory (EJPT). Ulrich brings the perspective of radical realism into a productive dialog with Adorno's critical theory.

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News
30.06.2025

Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay awarded the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Prize 2025

Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay (Junior Professor of Ethnology with a focus on Political Anthropology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and former postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center Normative Orders at Goethe University) receives the Sibylle Kalkhof-Rose University Award 2025 in the category Humanities and Social Sciences.

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Publication
25.06.2025 | Online article

Ideology and Suffering: What Is Realistic about Critical Theory?

Ulrich, Amadeus (2025): Ideology and suffering: What is realistic about critical theory? European Journal of Political Theory, 0(0).  https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851251351782

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News
24.06.2025

New series “Vertrauensfragen” in the Frankfurter Rundschau initiated by Hendrik Simon

Democracy thrives on debate - if it serves the joint search for solutions. There is often a problem with this cooperation. The new FR series “Vertrauensfragen”, initiated by Hendrik Simon (Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) Frankfurt location at Goethe University's Research Centre Normative Orders ), examines why this is the case and how we can do better.

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Publication
23.06.2025 | Working Paper

Untrustworthy Authorities and Complicit Bankers: Unraveling Monetary Distrust in Argentina

Moreno, Guadalupe (2025): “Untrustworthy Authorities and Complicit Bankers: Unraveling Monetary Distrust in Argentina”. Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Discussion Paper 25/3.

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News
22.05.2025

Does deliberative democracy have a future in the age of oligarchs, autocrats and patriarchs?

On June 3, Prof. Simone Chambers will give a lecture on the value of democracies and the future of the form of government.

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Publication
19.05.2025 | Anthology

Klimaethik. Ein Reader

Sparenborg, Lukas; Moellendorf, Darrel (Hrsg.) (2025) : Klimaethik. Ein Reader. Suhrkamp.

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News
19.05.2025

What can a baroque tapestry tell us about colonial iconography?

Lecture by Cécile Fromone on May 21. The professor at the Department of the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, director of the Cooper Gallery at the Hutchins Center and author will talk about the long-forgotten African origins of iconography and its colonial dimension.

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News
05.05.2025

Normative Orders Newsletter 01/25 published

The newsletter from Research Centre Normative Orders collects information on current events, reports, news and publications several times a year. Read the first issue 2025 here.

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