This colloquium series has developed in response to the polarized – and polarizing – discourses surrounding Israel/Palestine as well as German perspectives on it.

Many spaces intended to engage dialogue, exchange, and constructive disagreement – including universities – are increasingly characterized by fear, silence, anger, withdrawal and a feelings of frustration by all involved.   

As social psychologists, researchers, educators, and writers, this raises pressing questions for us:

  • What does it mean to take a public position in times of escalating polarization?
  • What tensions and dilemmas do people face when they choose to speak up – or stay silent?
  • How are these experiences shaped by individual and collective histories, identities, and affiliations?
  • What emotional, professional, or political consequences can arise from taking a stand?
  • How can we understand the (in)ability to speak in the context of memory politics?

We argue that a closer social psychological look at these entanglements, emotions, and histories can offer meaningful insights into broader dynamics of memory, power, and conflict.

Together with our invited speakers, we want to create a space for dialogue, reflection and engagement, that is responsible, respectful, and honest, even across deep differences.

All talks take place at the SFU Berlin, Columbiadamm 10, Turm 9, Berlin-Tempelhof.
Colloquium talks are open to students, teachers, researchers of SFU as well as to external guests.

Registration is required and closes one day prior the colloquium session.  -> Link 

Guests and Colloquium Schedule

June 5, 2025, 6.00 p.m.
Abeer Khshiboon: Testimony After the Destruction of Words: Should I Even Speak?

Abeer Khshiboon is a postdoctoral fellow at the Europe in the Middle East – The Middle East in Europe (EUME) program of the Forum Transregionale Studien. Her Ph.D. research at the Theological Faculty of Humboldt University of Berlin is a narrative ethnography with Christian Palestinian communities in Galilee, internally displaced since the Nakba of 1948. It examines experiences of transgenerational trauma, historical disenfranchised grief, and possibilities of healing and redemption through their Indigenous Christianity: Masihiya. She holds two master’s degrees, in Jewish Theology from the University of Potsdam, and in Education from the University of Haifa. As a EUME Fellow for the 2024/25 academic year, she explores local Eastern Mediterranean portrayals of Jesus, drawing on oral traditions as living archives that are still unrecognized as history. Her work seeks to bring forth narratives that remain elusive within doctrine-bound and Western-centric methodologies and epistemologies.

June 19, 2025, 6 p.m.
Charlotte Wiedemann: Germany and Gaza: The Moral Failure of Memory Culture

Charlotte Wiedemann is an award-winning German journalist and author. She has done research in more than 30 countries with a focus on “Islamic lifeworlds” and has been writing for Geo, die ZEIT, Le Monde Diplomatique, Qantara, Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, Südlink, Neue Züricher Zeitung und die taz.  Her book publications include Der lange Abschied von der weißen Dominanz (The long farewell to white dominance) (2019) and Den Schmerz der Anderen begreifen. Holocaust und Weltgedächtnis (Understanding the Pain of Others. Holocaust and World Memory)(2022), where she engages with cultures of remembrance and postcolonial thought.

July 10, 2025, 6.00 p.m.
Derviş Hızarcı : Addressing Antisemitism in Polarized Times: Risks, Dilemmas and Responsibilities

Dervis Hizarci serves as chairman of the board of KIgA, the Kreuzberger Initiative against Antisemitism, a highly acclaimed NGO working against antisemitism and racism since 2003. The Berlin native is part of the German delegation to IHRA. He has been working as a lecturer for a variety of distinguished institutions, government agencies, the federal police, and the Armed Forces of Germany. During his tenure with the Jewish Museum Berlin he supervised the education department’s programs on antisemitism. He chaired the Supervisory Board of the Turkish Community in Berlin from 2011-2015. He also coordinated the American Jewish Committee’s Turkish-Jewish Roundtable. For his commitment against antisemitism and for fostering the Jewish-Muslim dialogue he received the Federal Cross of Merit from the Federal President of Germany and the Berlin State Order of Merit. His first book, Between Hatred and Principles, was published by the prestigious publishing house, Suhrkamp, in October 2024.

For follow-up questions, please contact: Karin.mlodoch@sfu-berlin.de

Location:
Department of Psychology
Sigmund Freud PrivatUniversität Berlin
Campus Tempelhof
Columbiadamm 10, Tower 9
12101 Berlin – Tempelhof
[Google Maps]

Tel.: +49 (0)30 695 797 28-0
Email: psychologie@sfu-berlin.de
Web: https://psychologie.sfu-berlin.de/