Keynote Speakers
Juan Del Toro
University of Minnesota
Juan Del Toro is an Assistant Professor whose research explores the impact of ethnic-racial discrimination, identity and socialization on human development from childhood to adulthood. He takes a multi-method, multidisciplinary, and collaborative approach to investigate how peers, educators, schools, and families can mitigate harmful effects of living in inequitable societies to promote young people’s well-being. He has received numerous awards, including the Social Policy Publication Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence.
Meron Mendel
Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences
Meron Mendel is a Professor of Transnational Social Work as well as a historian, educator, and writer. Since 2010, he is the Director of the Anne Frank Educational Center. His research focuses on antisemitism, the future of remembrance culture, migration societies and identity politics. His research projects have been funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. He has written and edited numerous books, published scholarly articles and contributes regularly to major German-language newspapers.
Saba-Nur Cheema
Goethe University Frankfurt
Saba-Nur Cheema is a political scientist and writer. Her research focuses on political education in post-migrant societies, antisemitism, racism, Muslim life in Germany and Jewish-Muslim dialogue. From 2015 to 2021, she was the pedagogical director of the Anne Frank Educational Center in Frankfurt. She published a recent (2024) book with Meron Mendel titled, Muslimisch jüdisches Abendbrot. Das Miteinander in Zeiten der Polarisierung [Muslim-Jewish supper. Togetherness in times of Polarization].
Karen Schönwälder
Georg August University Göttingen
Karen Schönwälder is a Professor and research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity. Her research focuses on societal responses to diversity, political participation, and policies influencing heterogeneous societies. She has led numerous research projects and is especially known for her work on diversity assent – being open or supportive of sociocultural diversity. She has held positions at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), Philipps University Marburg, the University of London and the University of Haifa.