„People like us“ : A Science Poetry Slam for Young Muslims

The audiences of science communication in the West activities are often predominantly male, older, highly educated, socio-economically better off, and have a white ethnic background (e.g. Dawson 2019: 67). Other demographic groups in society are underrepresented, and often it is not even known in detail who the not reached groups are (Schrögel et al. 2018).
In order to improve this situation, science communication practice has to change and give excluded audiences more space on and in front of the stage. In this lightning talk, I will give insights into a pilot format trying to achieve this: a science poetry slam with and for young Muslims with a migration background in Germany.
We developed, implemented, and evaluated the slam together with young Muslims from Berlin. They reported that they are missing „people like us” in science (communication), thus the slam aimed to get them in touch with role models from their community by inviting both science and poetry slammer with a migration background to perform at the event. The talk will present findings regarding the design, implementation, and evaluation of the slam — what worked and what didn’t.