The Alfred Landecker Foundation and Humanity in Action announce 2022 Landecker Democracy Fellows

Berlin and New York, November 18, 2022 – Today, the Alfred Landecker Foundation, in partnership with Humanity in Action, has announced the participants of the third cohort of its Landecker Democracy Fellowship.

The Landecker Democracy Fellowship supports community leaders and young professionals in addressing systemic inequities in Europe and the United States through innovative grassroots projects. The common denominator of this year’s projects is that they all revolve around the challenges and opportunities of democracy in the digital age. The projects take place at the intersection of technology and social justice, and may vary widely in focus, methodology, scope, and target groups. 

The projects seek to engage with a variety of questions: How do we engage the factors and actors (de)stabilizing democracy in the digital age? How do we employ technology to advance inclusive democratic placemaking? How do we leverage the opportunities and address the dangers inherent in technology? How can we employ digital means to counteract hate and bring people together? Our goal for this year’s program is supporting our Fellows as they seek to tackle these challenges and harness these opportunities, while also building a cohort of leaders whose approaches to these questions further their development as champions of democracy, community and social justice.

The Fellowship funds 30 carefully chosen individuals who were born in or after 1980 and whose goals range from empowering Amazon workers in Poland to take on the company’s oppressive tracking algorithms, to the curation of a digital exhibition examining the far-right in the United States, to the development of a program that high school teachers can use to teach media literacy around fake news and misinformation.

“Democracies were in danger long before the pandemic hit and before Russia invaded Ukraine. And still, these two transformations have a magnifying effect: making structural inequality, hate, racism or antisemitism visible in all their brutality. We see a rise in conspiracy theories both on- as well as offline. Individuals and collectives receive threats against their own well-being and those of their surroundings and communities. This is a reality we can’t and won’t accept,” said Luisa Maria Schweizer, Program Director of the Alfred Landecker Foundation. “The Landecker Democracy Fellowship is a unique opportunity to tackle these challenges, to defend our democracies and open societies in the digital age.”

Hailing from the European Union, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States, 30 community leaders and young professionals were selected through a rigorous admissions process from a pool of 90 finalists. The Fellows and their projects, each unique and innovative in their ambitions, aim to foster social justice and create inclusive societies. The Fellows’ propositions will be supported, including with a monthly stipend (10,000 Euros in total), seed funding of 5,000 Euros for their projects, guidance and intense training to increase their individual impact on political discourses, policy making and social realities.

“The Landecker Democracy Fellowship is a special part time program that allows young professionals to make a material impact on their community,” according to Dr. Judith S. Goldstein, Founder and CEO of Humanity in Action. “Becoming a Landecker Democracy Fellow also allows individuals to join the inspiring community of Humanity in Action alumni, gain vital skills and amplify their voices as they tackle the particular challenges facing liberal democracy, social justice and communications in the digital age. We are proud to bring these 30 new Fellows into our community and help make their projects a reality for themselves and the greater public.”