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Inscribing Plurality

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My mission is to provide the tools and support for young Muslims and Jews in making our public sphere more plural, by literally inscribing plurality in newspapers, magazines, and books. It is to help to make a space for their ideas, their words, in our shared society: fostering an opportunity to strengthen discursive, democratic praxis.

Landecker Democracy Fellow Elisabeth’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. Inscribing Plurality brings them into conversation with one another and with the city that they call home. It brings new and often-marginalized voices into a local public sphere dominated by established “mainstream” voices, while creating a platform for these youth to grapple in written form with the democratic challenges faced in Berlin and Europe.

Project Objectives

Boot-camp and mentorship program

Inscribing Plurality will consist of a writing boot-camp for young Muslim and Jewish Berliners, along with a mentorship program that pairs these individuals with established journalists, writers, agents, and publishers. Additionally, the emerging journalists/writers will contribute to the founding of a shared publication–as contemporary societal scribes–developing their skills for communicating with the larger public in Berlin.

The project also aims to affect a broad audience, across Germany and Europe, by fostering opportunities for these youth to insert their voices into public conversations about democracy, pluralism, and societal cohesion.

Diversifying voices

Through Inscribing Plurality, Elisabeth strives to democratize the public sphere. She recognizes the importance of diversifying voices heard in public debates over pluralism and inclusion. This engagement will foster a space in which Muslim and Jewish youth in Berlin create a creative product together (the Scribe) that deals with the hopes and challenges of democratic society while simultaneously countering the notion that Muslims and Jews are at odds with one another.

Empowering

Inscribing Plurality will also empower youth from minority ethnoreligious groups in an urban context by supporting their development as they foster their own journalistic/literary academic and career trajectories. Inscribing Plurality will support the development of their voices through fellowship, writing/publishing, and mentorship, and it is ultimately an endeavor rooted in the possibilities for pluralism: possibilities that will be enlivened by the next generation.

Updated December 2021.