I am a sociologist and writer, currently a Freigeist (“Free Spirit”) Fellow/Assistant Professor at the Max Weber Institute of Sociology, University of Heidelberg and a Senior Fellow at the Yale University Center for Cultural Sociology. I am also co-editor of the journal Patterns of Prejudice, dedicated to understanding the motivations for, and potential solutions for discrimination.

I received my PhD in Sociology from Yale University in 2018, my master’s degree in Forced Migration and Refugee Studies from Oxford University in 2007, and my BA in Sociology and a College Scholar (focusing on the effects of trauma on culture in the context of forced migration).

My work focuses on the experiences and entanglements of Muslims and Jews in Europe and United States. I currently collaborate with schools, universities and organizations on combatting antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Since October 7th, 2023, I have worked to create “Third Spaces” in which those with different viewpoints can continue to speak to one another.

As the principle investigator for the Muslims for American Progress New York City Project, I have actively worked to confront and dismantle stereotypes about Muslims in the United States. You can see a video from my presentation at the Brooklyn Historical Institute on C-SPAN here.

In my Freigeist project “Invisible Architects: Jews, Muslims, and the Construction of Europe,” I highlight how Jews and Muslims have contributed to the formation of European societies.

I write books and articles for newspapers, magazines and academic outlets. I am author of Mosques in the Metropolis: Incivility, Caste and Contention in Europe (University of Chicago Press) and Heimat: Five Jewish Lives and the Search for Home (forthcoming with Verso). The first piece of this project, “Walking with Walter Benjamin: The Jewish Lives and Afterlives of “the City god,” Berlin” was published in the literary magazine The New England Review.

I further write for mainstream outlets on issues related to religious diversity, including publications with The Washington Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Religion and Politics, Tablet Magazine, The Forward, Kveller, Global Dialogue, and A Beautiful Perspective, and was a 2021 journalism fellow at Tablet Magazine.

You can contact me at: elisabethbecker@aya.yale.edu.