Our Research

Phenomena of vituperation and disparagement, of humiliation and derision not only have an astonishing occurrence in contemporary politics and society; from a cross-cultural, epoch-spanning perspective, they present themselves as fundamental operations of societal communication. As moments of social dis­rup­tion, stabilization, and mobilization, they harbor the potential to build communities and shape socie­ties; their work is simultaneously destructive and productive. Our joint research project introduces the concept ‘invectivity’ as an umbrella term for such phenomena. ‘Invectivity’ denotes those aspects of (verbal and nonverbal, oral and written, gestural and pictorial) com­munication that are capable of degrading, offending or excluding others. Read more in our research program

The CRC 1285 „Invectivity. Constellations and dynamics of disparagement“ is funded by the  German Research Foundation (DFG) and started its work in July 2017 at the Dresden University of Technology (TU Dresden).