Dr. Asmaa Soliman is the director of the Young Postmigrant Alliances programme at the Schwarzkopf Foundation Young Europe, which includes projects such as the Young Islam Conference. She also leads the Future D project on digital democracy. From 2020 to 2024, Dr. Soliman led the Competence Network Living Together in the Migration Society. She is a social scientist who studied in Maastricht and completed her doctorate in London. This resulted in her book European Muslims Transforming the Public Sphere, in which she examines the participation of young Muslims in the public sphere. Dr. Soliman has gained international experience in both academia and practice and wants to strengthen the transfer in both directions. She has a particular interest in the conception and management of various political education formats as well as in outreach work with politicians and other stakeholders. Her work focuses on diversity and democracy, postmigrant societies, Islam in Europe and intercultural understanding.

Andrei Chitu supports the program management and the team in the areas of finance and administration. He also manages the European project Moving Europe – Negotiating Legacies of Migration at the Museum, which aims to research local migration history by young people in museums. He studied philosophy and data management in Tübingen, Paris, Potsdam and Berlin. Before joining the team, he had already worked for several organizations and institutions and was able to implement and support a wide range of social and cultural projects.

Seren Başoğul develops and manages our educational formats for young people with a focus on participation and empowerment. She studied visual communication and created exhibitions on a range of social issues. As a talent scout, she promoted equal educational opportunities for young people from families without academic backgrounds in North Rhine-Westphalia. Her expertise in diversity, inclusion and anti-racism education is a hallmark of her work.

After completing her Traineeship in Communications, Network Management, and Europeanisation with us last year, Svea Klee now supports Seren Başoğul as a project assistant for Promotion of Democracy and Diversity. She is simultaneously working on her Master’s thesis in International Relations at the University of Groningen.

Vinya Mehta is responsible for outreach and policy at the Young Islam Conference. She studied Politics, Religion, Gender Studies and Law in London and has expertise in migration and intersectional discrimination. Amplifying multiply marginalised anti-racist perspectives is particularly important in her advocacy work.

Julia Steenpaß supports the Outreach and Policy department as a project assistant. Previously, her focus was on supporting transformation processes and building governance structures through exchange and participation formats in city-related projects. She is currently studying Eastern European Studies and is working on international democratization processes.

Caroline Haufe manages the press and public relations of the Young Islam Conference and manages the Media Academy together with Seren. She studied literature in Freiburg, Edinburgh and Berlin and previously worked in the field of communication in the cultural sector and in post-migrant contexts.

Armin Begić manages the project Untold Stories of Togetherness: Muslim-Jewish Alliances and Remembrance Culture and coordinates the European travel grants. He studied Islamic Theological Studies and Gender Studies in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Amman and London. His expertise includes anti-discrimination work, interreligious learning, genocide research, political education and religion and gender.

Deniz Erdoğdu supports Caroline Haufe in communicating the Young Islam Conference. She has worked in the field of cultural education for a long time and is active in artistic activism. She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Sociocultural Studies.