Echoes of Authority
Three Days of Workshops, Discussions, Exhibitions, Performances, and More

March 24–27, 2026

Collegium Helveticum

Convened by

Zainabu Jallo
Early-Career Fellow 2025–2026

Nina Kerschbaumer
Early-Career Fellow 2025–2026

Anna [Anouk] Luhn
Early-Career Fellow 2025–2026

María Victoria Seca
Early-Career Fellow 2025–2026

Details

Venue and accessibility info: Collegium Helveticum

This is a public event.
Participation is free of charge.

For some activities, registration is kindly requested:
Workshop registration “Amok”
Workshop registration “Infrahuman”
Workshop registration “Politics of Youth”
Reading group registration

Additional info regarding the two exhibitions:
Duration: March 25 – May 15, 2026
Official opening event: March 25, 19:30-21:30
Opening hours (after March 30): Mon-Fri, 12:30-16:30

For groups of 10 or more people, such as school classes: Pre-register your visit with the Events Office (group visits are also possible outside of the official opening hours from Tue-Fri by prior arrangement).

Contemporary societies are shaped by enduring and contested forms of authority that operate across cultural, political, historical, social, epistemic, and linguistic domains. These forms leave traces and resonances that structure everyday life, knowledge production, and political imaginaries, while also generating sites of tension, resistance, and transformation. This interdisciplinary festival examines these echoes of authority and the conditions under which they persist, fade, or are actively challenged.

Attentive to historical processes, power relations, and sociopolitical dynamics, the festival “Echoes of Authority” engages with themes such as shifting forms of literacy, representations of violence, youth political activism, and broader inquiries into what it means to be human today.

Over three days, the festival brings together workshops, film screenings, panel discussions, exhibitions, performances, and instant sessions. By convening scholars, artists, and practitioners from different fields, we offer a space for dialogue and critical exchange, and foster interdisciplinary perspectives on contemporary social challenges.

A festival for you:

The festival is intended for a broad and diverse audience, including professors and researchers in the social sciences and humanities, artists and creative practitioners, Master’s and PhD students, independent researchers, and members of the public with an interest in contemporary social, political, and cultural issues.

Program:

Download the digital program

Pre-Event
Tuesday, March 24

20:00

Filmscreening
L’Argent by Robert Bresson, 1983, FR

Venue: Cinema Arthouse Picadilly
With an introduction by Nina Kerschbaumer, Collegium Helveticum.
Followed by a conversation with historian Mischa Suter, Collegium Helveticum/Geneva Graduate Institute, CH.

→ For more info click here
→ Tickets can be purchased via the venue’s website.

Day 1
Wednesday, March 25

10:00	Informal initiation The Postscriptum Observatory: A Listening Space for Minor Notes, Delayed Voices, and Echoes Without Origin Venue: Small Observatory By continent., in collaboration with sound artist and composer Luis Sanz. → For more info click here. → No registration required.
12:00	Lunch break
14:00	Workshop Amok Venue: Wolf Room Moderated by Nina Kerschbaumer, Collegium Helveticum With: Claudia Bossard, theater director, CH Mine Pleasure Bouvar, political educator, DE Diedrich Diederichsen, independent writer, DE Adam Knowles, philosopher, University of Zurich, CH Mischa Suter, historian, Collegium Helveticum/Geneva Graduate Institute, CH → For more info click here → We kindly request you register for this workshop via this form.
17:00	Break
17:30	Opening & welcome remarks Venue: Meridian Hall By Zainabu Jallo, Anna [Anouk] Luhn, Nina Kerschbaumer, Victoria Seca, and the Collegium’s directorate
18:00	Discussion Under Pressure: Diffuse Origins and Concrete Outcomes Venue: Meridian Hall Moderated by Nina Kerschbaumer, Collegium Helveticum With: Mine Pleasure Bouvar, political educator, DE Diedrich Diederichsen, independent writer, DE Yuvviki Dioh, cultural worker and scholar, Schauspielhaus Zürich, CH Clara E. Mattei, economist, University of Tulsa, US Olga Reznikova, ethnographer, University of Zurich, CH → For more info click here → No registration required.
19:30–21:30	Exhibition openings Hazlo con otrxs Youth, Argentinian Fanzines, and Echoes of Resistance Venue: Gallery Curated by Nazareno Bravo, Victoria Seca, and Zainabu Jallo. → For more info click here Poetry of Power News, Flipcharts, and Images Too True to Be Good Venue: Laboratory With works by Harun Farocki, Michael Franz, Nina Kerschbaumer, Val Minnig, Rabea Ridlhammer, and Jan Soldat. Curated by Nina Kerschbaumer → For more info click here → No registration required. Followed by a small reception.

Day 2
Thursday, March 26

09:30	Arrival & coffee
10:00	Instant reading group Opacity as Counter-Resonance Venue: Wolf Room By Hannah Wallenfels Independent philosopher, co-founder diffrakt e.V., DE → For more info click here → We kindly request you register for the reading group via this form.
12:00	Lunch break
14:00	Workshop The Infrahuman Venue: Meridian Hall Moderated by Zainabu Jallo, Collegium Helveticum With: Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, writer and literary scholar, Collegium Helveticum, CH / University of Pennsylvania, US Dennis Hansen, project lead and curator, Natural History Museum, University of Zurich, CH Nadia Mazouz, philosopher, ETH Zurich, CH George Paul Meiu, anthropologist, University of Basel, CH Anna Schmid, museographer and independent researcher, DE Mario Wimmer, historian, Collegium Helveticum, CH → For more info click here → We kindly request you register for this workshop via this form.
17:00	Break
18:00	Discussion Ruling Grammar: Language and Authority Venue: Meridian Hall Moderated by Anouk Luhn, Collegium Helveticum With: Odette Casamayor-Cisneros, writer & literary Scholar, Collegium Helveticum, CH/University of Pennsylvania, US Fabian Saul, writer and composer, DE Pierre-Héli Monot, political scientist, Ludwig Maximilians-Universität Munich, DE Hannah Wallenfels, independent philosopher, co-founder diffrakt e.V., DE Followed by a reception. → For more info click here → No registration required.
19:30–21:30	Reception

Day 3
Friday, March 27

09:30	Arrival & coffee
10:00	Instant zine-making A Collective Space for Creation Venue: Wolf Room By Maya Ober, University of Bern & Futuress, CH With Zainabu Jallo and Victoria Seca, Collegium Helveticum → For more info click here → No registration required.
12:00	Lunch break
14:00	Workshop The Politics of Youth Venue: Wolf Room Moderated by Victoria Seca, Collegium Helveticum Emma Gomez Nicolau, sociologist, Universidad Jaume I, ES Valentina Holecz, political scientist, University of Geneva, CH Philipp Kerler, political scientist, University of Zurich, CH Camila Ponce Lara, sociologist, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, AT Hannah Werner, political scientist, University of Zurich, CH Alexandre Dafflon, political scientist & sociologist, University of Lausanne, CH → For more info click here → We kindly request you register for this workshop via this form.
17:00	Break
18:00	Performance Schlechte Wörter / Bad Words #7: LOOK (Solmaz Sharif) Venue: Meridian Hall A sonic art performance by Schlechte Wörter / Bad Words (Fabian Saul & Mathias Zeiske), with: Logan February, poet Moshtari Hilal, artist, writer, and curator Tanasgol Sabbagh, poet and artist Fabian Saul, writer and composer → For more info click here → No registration required.
19:00	Closing All These Wires Between Us By Zainabu Jallo, Anna [Anouk] Luhn, Nina Kerschbaumer, and Victoria Seca. Followed by a small reception
20:00–22:00	DJ-Set by Mine Pleasure Bouvar