Welcome

Dr. Jennifer A. Selby is a Professor in the Department of Religion and Culture, jointly appointed to the Department of Political Science, as well as an affiliate member of the Department of Gender Studies at Memorial University. From 2024-26, she is director of MUNL’s Nexus Centre for Humanities and Social Scientific Research.

Selby’s research and teaching engage the politics of secularism, with attention to how they play out in the lives of everyday people. Secularism is most often understood as a separation of religion from politics, and often assumed as a key guarantor of liberalism, democracy, rationality, and gender equality. In contrast, the core argument of Selby’s research is that secularism(s) in the North Atlantic world are intimately related to the regulation of religion and sexuality. More empirically, her research is ethnographic and examines secularisms in contemporary France and Canada. Selby’s most recent book, Secular Sensibilities (UNC Press, 2025), considers the emotional, affective, and embodied nature of secularism, drawing on transnational fieldwork in Algeria, France and Québec and secularism studies theory. She currently directs a bilingual SSHRC-funded research program, Secularism on the Move / La laïcité en mouvement (pour son cv en français, voir ce lien).

Selby serves on several boards, including the executive of the Canadian Corporation for the Study of Religion, the steering committee of the Secularism and Secularity unit of the American Academy of Religion, the St. John’s Public Library, and others. In 2020, she was awarded Memorial University’s President’s Award for Research.

Fields Of Research

  • Secularism Studies
  • Islam in the North Atlantic world (France, Canada)
  • Method and Theory
  • Women and Islam, Gender Studies
  • Religion and Migration
  • Religion and Public Policy in Canada

Academics

BA Honours (U Winnipeg), MA (Queen's University), PhD (McMaster University), Postdoctoral Fellowship (Harvard University)

Teaching Schedule

Winter 2026

LWPP/POSC/RELS 3385, Religion and Law in Canada

Office Hours

By appointment.

Office: 5029 Arts and Administration
Telephone: (709) 864-4046
Email: jselby@mun.ca