ConTrust Podcast #6 / Can we trust documentaries?
With Laliv Melamed and Vinzenz Hediger in conversation with Ra’anan Alexandrowicz
In a world where conflicts seem to escalate repeatedly – whether in the Middle East, Ukraine, or the rising tensions between China and the USA – finding peaceful solutions often appears more challenging than ever. The rise of right-wing populist parties and extremist groups in Europe and beyond is also contributing to an increase in conflicts. But do conflicts necessarily have to be destructive?
ConTrust the podcast is dedicated to the central themes of trust and conflict, exploring how we, as a society, can address the challenges of today’s world. How can we prevent conflicts from escalating into violence and destruction? What alternative, more productive paths are there for conflictual developments and outcomes? And most importantly, how can we ensure that institutions protect us and that society remains stable?
In each episode, we tackle these questions and offer perspectives for a more constructive approach to conflicts and the trust-building mechanisms that can help keep us united during difficult times.
Episode 4 with Dr Laliv Melamed (Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Groningen, Associate Member at the Cluster Initiative “ConTrust – Trust in Conflict”), Prof Vinzenz Hediger (Professor of Cinema Studies at Goethe University, Principal Investigator at the Cluster Initiative “ConTrust – Trust in Conflict”) in conversation with Ra’anan Alexandrowicz (Israeli filmmaker and writer)
News from the research center
Disinhibited Informalization: Talk Radio, Bro Podcasts and the Aesthetics of Populism
This essay by Johannes Völz is a revised and updated translation of “Enthemmte Informalisierung: Talk Radio, Bro-Podcasts und die Ästhetik des Populismus,” WestEnd: Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 22.2 (2025): 3–24. It is published here as part of the b2o Review’s “Stop the Right” dossier.
weitere Infos ›Von der Selbstermächtigung zum sozialen Widerstand
Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Axel Honneth (Frankfurt am Main / New York Columbia University) mit anschließender Diskussion im Rahmen des Rechtstheoretischen Mittwochsseminars von Klaus Günther, Dan Wielsch und Benno Zabel.
weitere Infos ›Speculative Truth Regimes
Event with Adam Kahlil (New Red Order) and Toby Lee (NYU) as part of the Series Visual Truth Regimes, organized by Laliv Melamed (Goethe University Frankfurt, Normative Orders), Felix Trautmann (Institut für Sozialforschung; HBK Braunschweig) and Franziska Wildt (Institut für Sozialforschung).
more information ›Shifting Regimes, Changing Orders
Conference as part of WDC2026 in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Designtheorie und -forschung (DGTF), Kunstgewerbemuseum/Design Campus SKD and Design and Democracy
more information ›Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice
Following the research focus of the Global Health Justice Postdoctoral Programme, funded by Höppsche Stiftung, the "Global Health Justice: Principles and Practice" conference places a particular emphasis on themes such as the human right to health, political activism and health justice issues, and problems of structural injustice and vulnerable populations in health care. Keynote lectures by Jonathan Wolff and Kanchana Mahadevan. The Global Health Justice Programme and this conference are supported by the Höppsche Stiftung in Villmar.
more information ›Democracy Over Time and the Climate Crisis
Vortrag von Anja Karnein (Binghamton). Die Vortragsreihe untersucht Fragen der Klimakrise als Herausforderungen für demokratische Gesellschaften und konzentriert sich auf Themen wie politische Legitimität, Widerstand gegen fossile Brennstoffe und die Interessen künftiger Generationen. Sie wird organisiert von Prof. Dr. Darrel Moellendorf und Dr. Lukas Sparenborg.
more information ›Capital Investment, Inequality, and State Power in a Time of Climate Emergency
The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.
Failed States and Cloudy skies: Tipping Points, Overshoot and Permanent Emergency, after America
The lecture series examines questions of the climate crisis as challenges for democratic
societies and focuses on issues of political legitimacy, fossil fuel resistance, and the interests
of future generations.