Currently, many countries are struggling with issues of growing radicalization, especially among the younger gen-eration. What motivates people to join terrorist groups like ISIS? What are the roots of radicalization in individuals, how can we prevent people from radicalizing and what are ways out of radicalization? Do specific gender-related challenges exist? With increasing numbers of religious extremists in prisons around the world and the dangers of radicalized fighters returning to their home countries, the issue of de-radicalization is more pressing than ever. We want to look at the psychological and pedagogical concepts of de-radicalization and the challenges for their appli-cation in the United States and Germany.
Speakers:
Arie W. Kruglanski, Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and the Co-Director of START (National Center for the Study of Terrorism and the Response to Terrorism). The Center consists of a consortium of researchers from various national and international universities under the leadership of the University of Mary-land in College Park. Its goal is to launch an unprecedented foray into the social and behavioral factors in terror-ism. We expect to offer not only empirically based, and theoretically sound insights into this disturbing phenome-non, but also concrete recommendations about ways of counteracting it. Kruglanski conducts research on the psy-chological processes behind radicalization, de-radicalization, and terrorism. He is known for his theory of "cognitive closure," a term to describe how we make decisions. "Closure" is the moment that you make a decision or form a judgment. You literally close your mind to new information.
Dr. Meltem Kulaçatan is a political scientist and pedagogue in Islamic Religious Education. Her main research fields are gender discourses in the transnational sphere, Feminism and Gender in Islam, political and religious thought in Modern Turkey, religious education in Turkey, migration and integration in Germany and Europe, and Turkish-German media in the public sphere. She was guest professor at the University of Zurich in Switzerland dur-ing the winter term in 2016/2017. She also worked as editorial staff in different publishing companies, in the field of German-Turkish education issues and projects and as lecturer at vocational schools. Currently, she is working in the framework of the Hessian Ministry for Science and Art-funded LOEWE research hub "Religious Positioning: Modalities and Constellations in Jewish, Christian and Muslim Contexts" at the Goethe University Frankfurt.
Eine Veranstaltung der Bildungsstätte Anne Frank, der Evangelischen Akademie, dem Landesverbandes Hessen des Zentralrates der Muslime-ZMD e.V. und dem US-Generalkonsulat