Shabnam Singla (she/her)
interdisciplinary social philosopher and filmmaker.I am interested in meaning-making, and how it gets influenced by hierarchies of knowledge and power. Who decides what counts as knowledge? Why do some narratives become the norms and others don't?Currently asking these questions as a research assistant at Cognitive Science Lab, IIT Gandhinagar, India. Previously, I worked as a filmmaking and documentation assistant at TYPA, a Printing and Paper Museum based in Tartu, Estonia. (Emotionally, you can spot me somewhere between: the trams of Vienna, snow-sledging in Tartu, filming on lombard street in San Francisco, or eating laphing in MKT in Delhi or admiring Chandigarh.)Originally from Chandigarh, India, I did my master's in Philosophy with a minor in Filmmaking at Central European University in Vienna, Austria. Before that, I did my undergrad in Philosophy at St. Stephen's College, Delhi.Find links to my research-based films and essays below, to indulge in my love for visuals, words, nuance, and venn diagrams! What am I up to at the moment? Feel free to message me.CV (May 2025)
Films I made
Quears
My documentary film capturing different people's relationship to earrings, expanding on subtle nuances of queer performativity, power, privilege, representations, and more.
my experimental film capturing relationship between one's body and the city.
Films I made
Unboxing Gender
A group project capturing a non-binary boxer's relationship with boxing and gender, and how intersectionality of social class and queerness might sometimes make you feel safer in traditionally conservative, male spaces.
academic research work
My MA Philosophy Thesis
Title: (Who should bear) the burden of bridging the conceptual gaps between the marginalised and the dominant?
Key areas: social epistemology, feminist philosophy
Thesis written during my master's in Philosophy at Central European University, Vienna.
My research work
Essays exploring politics of identity and information
Find here a few written works for courses, conferences, journals.
comics and VENN DIAGRAMS
How to do things with dots, circles & lines?
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Photos I took
My time at TYPA Printing Studio
Here are some of the photos I took during my time at TYPA, Paper and Printing Museum, Tartu, Estonia. Includes event photography, product photography, documentation of archival materials.
Some more Videography work
The Magic Circle, Berlin
A documentary capturing what's it like to a magician as a female in the male-dominated world of magic. Filmed in Berlin.
interviews and words I said
words in media
Some interviews where I talk about myself, my thoughts, more. (They may or may not reflect my current views!)