A Conversation with Aladin El-Mafaalani. The Glass of Reason Award winner discusses with students from Kassel

This year, “Das Glas der Vernunft” (The Glass of Reason), an award presented by the Kassel City Council, goes to sociologist and author Aladin El-Mafaalani. Students at the University of Kassel will have the opportunity to speak with El-Mafaalani the day before the award ceremony.

This year marks the 35th time the “Das Glas der Vernunft” award has been presented. The award, endowed with 20,000 euros by the Kassel City Council, goes to author and Professor of migration and educational sociology Aladin El-Mafaalani. The Executive Board and Board of Trustees are honoring El-Mafaalani for the “clarity with which he focuses on children as the ultimate purpose and sole future of society and advocates for intergenerational cohesion as a democratic community based on trust.” On the day before the award ceremony, the laureate will engage in conversation with young people at the university.

El-Mafaalani worked for many years as a teacher and later coordinated integration policy in North Rhine-Westphalia as a department head at the Ministry for Children, Family, Refugees, and Integration. As a professor of migration and educational sociology at the Technical University of Dortmund, he now examines the structural challenges of a society in which twice as many people retire each year as leave school. Both his research and his public work have been recognized with numerous awards. He is a recipient of the Federal Cross of Merit and a bestselling author.

Students from the University of Kassel and high school students are warmly welcome to attend the event at the University of Kassel. Registration is not required.