Former Fellow

Ravi Vasudevan

Director, Sarai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies; Module Coordinator: “Media and the Constitution of the Political”, International Centre for Advanced Studies: Metamophoses of the Political (ICAS:MP)

Research project Title:
Populism, Authoritarianism, and Trust: exploring Indian film and media history

Research abstract
My research project with ConTrust draws on Indian film and media history to explore significant political configurations that enabled the development of trust in authoritarian politics. The first instance relates to the role of governmental cinema in the development of the career of Indira Gandhi between 1967 and 1977. The second reflects on configurations of political power and necropolitics in the cinematic imagination of Banaras, and the political ascendancy of Narendra Modi.

Events:
ConTrust Speaker Series
July 12, 2023, 18.15
Lecture: Mythopolitics and Melodrama in the Forging of Populist Power in Contemporary India
For further information: Click here…

  • Biografische Angaben

    Ravi Vasudevan is a film and media historian. With Ravi Sundaram, Vasudevan directs Sarai, the media research program of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. He co-founded Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies (2010-), and is a coordinator of the media module of the International Centre for Advanced Studies: Metamorphoses of the Political (ICAS:MP). He is currently working on non-fiction film infrastructures, the film archives and questions of historiography; film and the history of publicity; film, media and mythopolitics; post-cinema media artefacts and political imaginaries.
  • Publikationen

    2023 Unexpected, Contingent, Accidental: Cinema in the Contemporary Digital Archive, in Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Vinzenz Hediger edited Accidental Archivism: Shaping Cinema’s Futures with Remnants of the Past, Meson Press 2022 Infrastructures of Political Address: the Film and Media Archive, in Ranjani Mazumdar and Neepa  Majumdar edited, Companion to Indian Cinema, London, Blackwell 2021 “In India’s Life and Part of It”: Film and Visual Publicity at Burmah Shell, 1920s-1950s, in Marina Dahlquist and Patrick Vondereau ed, Petrocinema: Sponsored Film and the Oil Industry, London, Bloomsbury 2021 Configurations of Partition: the Indian Newsreel Archive, in Ravi Vasudevan ed. Media and the Constitution of the Political: South Asia and Beyond, Delhi, Sage/Spectrum-International Centre for Advanced Studies: Metamorphoses of the Political

News from the research center

Event
10.02.2027 | Frankfurt am Main

Shifting Visions of Peace and Security

Panel Discussion, Lecture Series

Podiumsdiskussion im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times” mit Lisbeth Zimmermann (Goethe University/Normative Orders), Antonia Witt (PRIF), Siddarth Tripathi (University of Erfurt). Moderation: Jonas Wolff (Goethe University/PRIF/Normative Orders).

more information ›
Event
03.02.2027 | Frankfurt am Main

AI, War, and Big Tech

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Ingvild Bode (University of Southern Denmark)im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

more information ›
Event
16.12.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

International arms control in a world of uncertainties

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Malte Göttsche (TU Darmstadt/PRIF) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

more information ›
Event
02.12.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Enabling Authoritarianism: UN Peacekeeping and the Politics of Authoritarianism

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Sarah von Billerbeck (University of Reading) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

more information ›
Event
25.11.2026 | Frankfurt

Deterrence in “Post-Liberal Times“

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Maria Mälksoo (Copenhagen University) (Goethe-Universität/PRIF/Normative Orders) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

more information ›
Event
18.11.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

The Case for (Neo)colonialism: Neotrusteeship in International Relations as the ‘Imperial Mind’ of the ‘Colonial Present’

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Nick Lemay-Hébert (Manchester University) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

more information ›
Event
28.10.2026 | Frankfurt am Main

Postliberal vs. liberal Perspectives on Peace and Security and Crises

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Christopher Daase (Goethe-Universität/PRIF/Normative Orders) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung “Peace and Security in Post-Liberal Times”.

more information ›
Event
02.02.2027 | Frankfurt

Klassenjustiz, race und abolitionistische Demokratie

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Daniel Loick (Amsterdam) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Ist das Recht am Ende?" im Wintersemester 2026/2027. Organisiert von Klaus Günther und Benno Zabel.

more information ›
Event
19.01.2027 | Frankfurt

Nach der Normativität. Zum Verhältnis von Politik und Recht unter komputationalen Bedingungen

Lecture Series, Lecture

Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Sabine Müller-Mall (Frankfurt am Main) im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung "Ist das Recht am Ende?" im Wintersemester 2026/2027. Organisiert von Klaus Günther und Benno Zabel.

more information ›