With Mayanthi L. Fernando, Associate Professor, University of California Santa Cruz

Public Talk, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2016, 2-4 pm Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University, Moesgaard, Foredragssalen

Discussant: Heiko Henkel, Ass. Prof., Head of Studies, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen

This talk examines how Muslim French—i.e. those committed to practicing Islam as French citizens and practicing citizenship as pious Muslims—negotiate a social and political world in which they are imagined, a priori, as always already not-French because they are Muslim. It explores how this impasse is not only lived but also challenged by a post-immigration generation of Muslim civic activists. In so doing, it considers the ways that French secularism (laïcité) and French republicanism—and not Muslims—may be the real problems for pluralism. Rather than accepting the conventional narratives that laïcité entails strict neutrality and that the French nation is one and indivisible, my talk analyzes French secularism and French republicanism as “myths” that are historically fabricated but have real effects on the world. Through ethnography and critical historiography, it also reflects on new forms of public religiosity, national citizenship, and political possibility in France.

This public talk is organised as part of the international research seminar "Doubt and Certitude in Islam" organised by Thomas Fibiger, Mikkel Rytter, and Christian Suhr, Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University, Denmark, 13-15th December 2016.

Further info about Mayanthi L. Fernando: http://anthro.ucsc.edu/faculty/singleton.php?&singleton=true&cruz_id=mfernan3

Interview with Mayanthi Fernando: http://newbooksnetwork.com/mayanthi-fernando-the-republic-unsettled-muslim-french-and-the-contradictions-of-secularism-duke-up-2014/

 
Further info about Heiko Henkel: http://anthropology.ku.dk/staff/academicstaff/?pure=en%2Fpersons%2Fheiko-henkel(21de032e-f42d-4568-a503-3128e4b0dc21).html

Further info about the event: Nynne Visbo-Bomose: nynnevb@cas.au.dk

Also, please check the program for the full seminar in the link below!