The Research Centre Peace and Conflict InnPeace, in collaboration with the Department of German Studies of the University of Innsbruck hosted an online moderated discussion with visiting scholar and PhD Candidate Sunil Choudhary who presented reflections from his PhD research.

The word masses (or crowds) evokes various images in mind. And the multiplicity of meanings

attached to this 'catch-all term' reveals a lot about power relations. Among other things, the masses are a volatile political actor whose emergence shows the gaps between available forms of representation and the ‘socially significant passions’ of human beings. About 100 years ago, the cultural criticism in Germany, marking the changes catalysed by First World War, interpreted the prominence of 'emotional' collectives over 'rational' individuals as a

sign of societal decline or as an opportunity for democratisation. In this presentation, Sunil Choudhary would like to explore whether and how the frame of masses remains useful for understanding the age of globalisation from its margins.

Sunil Choudhary is a PhD candidate at the Centre for German Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India. As a recipient of Ernst Mach Grant of OeAD, he is carrying out the research on the notion of masses in the 1920s and has been a visiting scholar at the University of Innsbruck under the guidance of Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dirk Rose.

For more information, please contact Head of Research Centre Peace and Conflict, Assistant Professor Dr. Rina Alluri: rina.alluri@uibk.ac.at