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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) and schools, specifically on combatting Antisemitism and Islamophobia, as well as Jewish-Muslim relations in Europe and the United States. 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 December 2023
More from Elisabeth Becker Topkara
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
