Radical Diversity: Boston

Radical Diversity is a discussion series presented by several Goethe-Institut locations in North America in collaboration with its Goethe Pop Ups, the Thomas Mann House, and the Institute for Social Justice & Radical Diversity under the sponsorship of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung North America.

Right-wing extremism, everyday racism and racialized microaggressions, and pressure to “assimilate” – all of these constructs affecting racialized minorities result from an inability and unwillingness to respect and appreciate the radical diversity that underscores our societies. Max Czollek (“De-integrate Yourselves”) and Mohamed Amjahid (“Among Whites: What It Means to Be Privileged”) are two Millennial generation voices that have emerged from Germany in recent years. With a critical, multidimensional approach, Czollek and Amjahid will examine the challenges faced by German and North American societies, as well as various visions for progress, by discussing them with experts in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.

In our next discussion, hosted by the Goethe-Institut Boston, Max Czollek and Mohamed Amjahid speak with an anthropologist and an award-winning podcaster about the role of Jewish and Muslim communities in contemporary society. Researcher Sultan Doughan and journalist/podcaster Rachael Cerrotti approach the subject from very different perspectives: one is scientific, one is personal.

Sultan Doughan©Deni BudmanDr. Sultan Doughan is an anthropologist, who works on questions of citizenship, religious difference, racialization of Jewish and Muslim communities and political equality in contemporary Germany. She is particularly concerned with how genocide commemoration and the question of justice, transitional and racial, intersect and give rise to secular moral and ethical claims in public. Doughan has conducted field research among civil society organizations that were funded to combat Islamic extremism by teaching tolerance through the memory of the Holocaust. Dr. Doughan is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, Boston University.
Rachael Cerrotti©Meghan DhaliwalRachael Cerrotti is an award-winning documentary photographer, writer, educator and producer. Her work focuses on exploring the intergenerational impact of memory and migration. For over a decade, Rachael has been retracing her grandmother’s Holocaust survival story and documenting the echoes of World War II. In the fall of 2019, she released a narrative podcast about this story titled We Share The Same Sky. It is now being taught in high school classrooms throughout the United States and abroad. Rachael has worked in over a dozen countries and has been published and featured by NPR, PRI’s The World, WBUR, GBH, amongst others and regularly presents to communities and classrooms worldwide. Rachael has a forthcoming memoir set to be published in the fall of 2021 and works as a creative producer with USC Shoah Foundation. She is currently based in Maine.

© Konstantin BoernerDr. Max Czollek completed his doctorate studies at the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University Berlin. Since 2009, Czollek has been a member of poetry collective G13, which has published books and organized lectures. In 2018, his essay Desintegriert Euch! (Disintegrate!) was published at Carl Hanser. His second essay, Gegenwartsbewältigung (Coping with the Present), was published in August 2020.

©Mohamed AmjahidMohamed Amjahid studied political science in Berlin and Cairo, and conducted research on various anthropological projects in North America. Mohamed is a political reporter for the weekly newspapers Die Zeit and das Zeit Magazin. Anthropologically and journalistically, Amjahid focuses on human rights, equality, and upheaval in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Amjahid is a 2020 Thomas-Mann Fellow.