Article
Elisabeth Becker Topkara is an Assistant Professor/Freigeist Fellow at the Max-Weber-Institute-for-Sociology, Heidelberg University. Elisabeth’s research centers on the cultural construction and contestation of borders and boundaries. She explores the experiences and place-making practices of religious, racial, and ethnic minorities – Muslims and Jews in particular – in both Europe and the United States. Elisabeth has contributed to sociological debates on how migration and pluralism shape contemporary societies, including the continued exclusions faced by Muslims in Europe through a theory of incivility and undercaste status; and the agency of Muslim and Jewish populaces to foster social change in the urban centers of Europe and the United States. Her book, Mosques in the Metropolis: Incivility, Caste, and Contention (University of Chicago Press), offers a unique look into two of Europe’s largest urban mosque communities, providing a complex picture of Muslim life, while highlighting the failures of European pluralism.
Elisabeth is also a public scholar who works with non-profit organizations (e.g., the New America Foundation and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding). Her writing on pluralism has appeared in publications such as the Washington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Religion & Politics, and Tablet Magazine. She has been featured on BBC Radio.
Updated November 2021
More from Elisabeth Becker Topkara
-
Elisabeth at Encounter’s Project Final Berlin Meeting
Senior Landecker Fellow Elisabeth Becker Topkara is speaking at the final event for a project called Encounters, focused on Jewish-Muslim relations in European cities.
-
Inscribing Plurality: Can Jewish and Muslim Writers Pen a More Democratic Future?
Read an opinion piece by Senior Landecker Fellow Elisabeth Becker Topkara which she wrote as part of her Fellowship.
-
Jerusalem on the Rhine: The three Holy Communities
Landecker Fellow Elisabeth Becker wrote a piece titled "Jerusalem on the Rhine" in Tablet Magazine. The article digs into the Jewish historical preservation of three German cities: Speyer, Worms and Mainz.
-
Inscribing Plurality
Landecker Democracy Fellow Elisabeth Becker Topkara’s project, Inscribing Plurality, unites young Jews and Muslims (age 18-25) who live in Berlin and are interested in a career in journalism/writing to pen both their future and the future of our society together.
