His research interests include antigypsyism, antisemitism, collective memories, popular culture, and minority subjectivities. He holds a PhD in German Studies from the University of Michigan, where he received the Marshall Weinberg Prize for his dissertation on “The Making of ‘Jew Clubs’: Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Soccer and Fan Cultures.” Pavel earned an M.A. from the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technische Universität Berlin and a B.A. in social work and social pedagogy from the Hochschule Düsseldorf.
Pavel is the author of “Antisemitismus in Fußball-Fankulturen: Der Fall RB Leipzig” (2021, Beltz Juventa). He is also the co-editor of “Football and Discrimination: Antisemitism and Beyond” (2021, Routledge), and “Antigypsyism and Film/Antiziganismus und Film” (2020, Heidelberg University Publishing).
Antigypsyism and Minority Subjectivity in German Popular Culture: Football, Hip-Hop, Carnival
Sinti and Roma people continue to face discrimination daily, despite increasing awareness of antigypsyism as a pressing concern among academics and the public. This study examines the inclusion and exclusion of Sinti and Roma people in popular culture. It focuses on three aspects:
(1) It analyzes the (dis)continuities in “Gypsy images” as transmitted in football, hip-hop, and carnival, (2) it examines how Sinti and Roma gain agency and representation, and (3) it studies how postmemory, that is, the transmission of traumatic memories from one generation to the next, affects antigypsyism and minority subjectivity in the present.
Through a qualitative analysis of performances, testimonials, internet posts, song lyrics, images, and participant observation, this study combines the study of antigypsyism as ideology with the investigation of Sinti and Roma perspectives.