Research
My research considers contemporary secularism’s contradictions and contingencies through Canadian and French lenses, with particular attention to its relationships to postcoloniality, Islam, gender and the body.
The core argument of my work is that articulations of the secular in contemporary France and Canada relate to the regulation of religion, and index desirable sexualities, whiteness and the post-colonial nation state. My primary methodological approach – ethnography – sheds light on the voices of those often silenced within these matrixes.
Presently, I'm working on these projects:
- Secular Migration and Transnationalism: This research project examines secular transnationalism in the Francophone world (see our project website here). With Amélie Barras (York University), I have conducted interviews with French immigrants (brochure link here).
- The Secular Body: This SSHRC Insight grant-sponsored transnational project (in Montréal, Algeria and in a Parisian suburb) examines Islam, marriage migration and interventions of the state and how they reflect 'secular sensibilities' with attention to sexuality. Drawing on fieldwork from 2011-2019 and 187 interviews, I recently completed a monograph on this work.
- On Theory & Methods: Building on a Connections-sponsored workshop in Sept. 2017, I am considering how and why certain questions are posed in academic considerations of Islam(s) and Muslims in Canada. See this bibliography built from this project and consider joining our IslamCanada listserv.
- How "Secular Sensibilities" Impact interpretations of the Shariah: This line of research considers how the state’s positions on the secular (and therefore, un/desirable religion) impact Muslim French and Muslim Canadians interpretations of Islamic law.
- Introducing New Ways of Thinking about Religion and Difference in Canada: Beyond Accommodation: Everyday Narratives of Muslim Canadians (2018, UBC Press), interpolates secularism and the Muslim experience in Canada. With co-authors Barras and Beaman, we critique the prevalent ‘reasonable accommodation’ approach to religion in Canada, drawing on qualitative interviews conducted with 90 self-defined Muslims in Montreal and St. John’s, Canada. In contrast to much of the contemporary research on Muslims in minority contexts, our research theorizes moments in which religiosity is worked out.
- How Muslim life is imagined alongside the secular in the North Atlantic world: Much of my early work problematizes the French nation state's increasingly narrow post-1989 social-secular-sexual regime within the lives of women of Maghrebian origin living in a French suburban housing project. Methodologically, I have also considered this line of thinking through discourse analysis of contemporary governmental, legal and political interventions.
In addition, I am co-investigator on the SSHRC-funded, "Islamophobie savante et médiatique: Étude transnationale des discours et leur impact" (PI Abdelwahed Mekki-Berrada, U Laval).
I am currently active with a public engagement project, Addressing Islamophobia in NL (for more on the project, see here) and serve on the Anti-Racism Coalition of NL.
Lastly, I began a SSHRC-funded public engagement project with the Muslim Association of Newfoundland and Labrador and QEII Library's Archives and Special Collections to create a Muslim Narratives and Lives in NL Archive. This project is linked to a larger national project on which I am co-investigator, the Muslims in Canada Archive (MiCA; PI Anver Emon, U Toronto).
Refereed Publications
Books
Under contract. Muslim Narratives and Lives in Newfoundland and Labrador (edited volume).
2021. Producing Islam(s) in Canada: On Knowledge, Positionality and Politics. (edited with Amélie Barras and Melanie Adrian). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
2018. Beyond Accommodation: Everyday Narratives of Muslim Canadians. (with Amélie Barras and Lori G. Beaman). Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
2012. Questioning French Secularism: Gender Politics and Islam in a Parisian Suburb. The Contemporary Anthropology of Religion Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Press (Paperback version, 2016; Arabic translation, 2019; Turkish translation forthcoming).
2012. Debating Sharia: Islam, Gender Politics and Family Law Arbitration, co-edited with Anna C. Korteweg. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Read a short overview here.
Edited Journals
2021. “Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion.” Studies in Religion/Sciences religieuses. Second editor with Lori G. Beaman and Lauren Strumos. 50:3 (September)
2020. "Open Secularism from the Margins", co-edited with Carlos Colorado. Social Compass (April): 1-15.
2016. "Re/posing the 'Muslim Question', co-edited with Lori G. Beaman. Critical Research on Religion 4:1 (April): 8-20.
Select Articles & Book Chapters (2014-2022)
2022. "Romance and the Male Secular Body: The Case of Algerian Men in France and Québec." Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 90:1 (March): 248- 269
2022. “‘There is No Place for the State in the Bedrooms of the Nation’ or The Case of Bill 21: A Response to Goodwin’s Gender/Religion Lens” for Key Categories in the Study of Religion: Contexts and Critiques. Ed. Rebekka King. Equinox, 162-175.
2021. “Who are Muslims in Canada? Analysis of the Qualitative Literature 1997-2017,” (first author with A. Barras and L.G. Beaman) for Producing Islam(s) in Canada. Eds. Amélie Barras, Jennifer Selby, and Melanie Adrian, 91-119.
2021. “Introduction: Producing Islam(s) and Muslims in Canada” (first author with A. Barras and M. Adrian) for Producing Islam(s) in Canada. Eds. Amélie Barras, Jennifer Selby, and Melanie Adrian, 3-26.
2020. “L’angle mort de la « laïcité ouverte » : Les processus de navigation et négociations dans le vécu religieux au Canada.” (first author, with A. Barras and L.G. Beaman). Social Compass. April. 1-15.
2020. “Hashtagging ‘Good’ Muslim Performances Online.” (first author, with Cory Funk). Journal of Media and Religion. 19:2 35-45.
2019. “Required Romance: On Secular Sensibilities in Recent French Marriage and Immigration Regulations” in Secular Bodies, Affects, and Emotions: European Configurations. Eds. Monique Scheer, Nadia Fadil, and Birgitte Schepelern Johansen. Bloomsbury, 157-169.
2019. “Interrogating Categories with Ethnography: On the ‘Five Pillars’ of Islam,” for Constructing 'Data' in Religious Studies: Examining the Architecture of the Academy. Ed. Leslie Dorrough Smith. Sheffield: Equinox. 61-72.
2018. "Rethinking Canadian Discourses of Reasonable Accommodation" (second author, with A. Barras and L.G. Beaman). Social Inclusion 6:2 162-172.
2018. “Secularism and the Shari'a: Lessons from an Ontarian Debate” in The Shari’a: History, Ethics and Law, Muslim Heritage Series. Ed. Amyn Sajoo. London: I.B. Tauris, 215-230.
2018."Le terroriste, l'homme éclairé et le patriarche: Les figures qui hantent le quotidien des musulmanes." (premier auteur, avec Amélie Barras et Lori G. Beaman). Anthropologie et sociétés 42:2 (avril): 155-182.
2018. "“Muslim Canadians.” In Exploring Religion and Diversity in Canada: People, Practice and Possibility. Ed. Catherine Holtmann. Cham: Switzerland: Springer, 207-236.
2017. "Le bled en banlieue: Le mariage musulman face à l'État français." Ethnologie française (décembre): 693-705.
2016. "Theorizing de-Christianization in Women's Reproductive Lives in Newfoundland and Labrador" (second author, with Diana L. Gustafson) Women's Studies International Forum 59: (November-December) 17-25.
2016. "Muslimness and Multiplicity in Qualitative Research and in Governmental Reports in Canada" Critical Research on Religion 4:1 (April): 72-89.
2016. "No Mosque, No Refugees: Some Reflections on Syrian Refugees and the Construction of Religion in Canada." (with Lori Beaman and Amélie Barras). In The Refugee Crisis and Religion: Secularism, Security and Hospitality in Question. Eds. Luca Mavelli and Erin Wilson. Rowman and Littlefield.
2016. "'The Diamond Ring Now is the Thing': Young Muslim Torontonian Women Negotiating Mahr on the Web." In Muslim Youth and the 9/11 Generation. Eds. Adeline Masquelier and Benjamin F. Soares. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 189-212.
2016. "In/Visible Religion in Public Institutions: Canadian Muslim Public Servants." (with Amélie Barras and Lori Beaman). In Religion and the Exercise of Public Authority. Eds. Benjamin Berger and Richard Moon. London: Hart Publishing, 95-110.
2014. “Un/veiling Women's Bodies: Secularism and Sexuality in Full-face Veil Prohibitions in France and Québec.” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 43:3 439-466.
2014. “Hijab Debates in Europe.” In The Handbook of European Islam. Ed. Jocelyne Cesari. New York: Oxford University Press, 701- 741.
2014. “France.” In The Handbook of European Islam. Ed. Jocelyne Cesari. New York: Oxford University Press, 23-63.
2014. "C’est plus traditionnel ici qu’au bled: Analyse socio-spatiale du traditionalisme religieux dans une banlieue parisienne." Ethnologie Française 44: 3 515-526. Published in English here.
Select Non-refereed Contributions (2014-2021)
2021. “Forging New Futures for the Study of Religion in Canada: A Review of Aaron Hughes’s From Seminary to University.” For Studies in Religion/Sciences religieuses. Online First. (September) 1-4.
2021. “The Gentle Provincial Government Squeeze Out of Anti-Islamophobia Work in Newfoundland and Labrador” (with Sobia Shaikh). For Reading Muslims (University of Toronto).
2020. Review of Divorcing Traditions: Islamic Marriage Law and the Making of Indian Secularism (Cornell University Press, 2019; 232 pages) for Anthropologica 62: 453-454.
2020. “Church-State Relations” in The Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion. Eds. Adam Possemai and Anthony J. Blasi. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 137-138.
2019. “Addressing Islamophobia in Newfoundland and Labrador: Provincial Recommendations” (with Sobia Shaikh). September 23, 2019.
2019. “Op Ed: Can Faculty at Memorial Create Meaningful Social Change in NL? Should They?” September 23, 2019, The Gazette.
2019. “Op Ed: Bill 21 Is a Setback for Women’s Rights” (with Natasha Bakht), April 10, 2019, Montreal Gazette.
2019. Review of Al Rashid Mosque: Building Canadian Muslim Communities (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press) for Studies in Religion / Sciences Religieuses 48:4 (December): 690-692.
2019. Review of Musulmans de France, la grande épreuve: Face au terrorisme (Ivry-sur-Seine: Les Éditions de l’Atelier) for Ethnologie française. 173:1 (January): 160-162.
2018. Review of Sexagon: Muslims, France, and the Sexualization of National Culture (New York: Fordham University Press) for Reading Religion. November.
2018. ‘Producing Islam(s) in Canada’ Student Podcasts,” (with M. Adrian and A. Barras) Digital Projects in the Classroom on The Immanent Frame, April 18.
2017. Review of Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe (Stanford University Press) for ReOrient:The Journal of Critical Muslim Studies 2:2 (Spring): 204-207.
2017. “Op Ed: Do Not Remain Silent,” The Gazette, January 31.
2016. Can a Judge Determine Acceptable Religious Attire in a Quebec, Canada Courtroom? Shariasource, October 13.
2015. Review of Islamic Divorce in North America: A Shari’a Path in a Secular Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press) for Contemporary Islam: Dynamics of Muslim Life 9:1 (January): 127-129.
2014. (with Mayanthi Fernando). Short skirts and niqab bans: On sexuality and the secular body. The Immanent Frame.
2014. Review of On the Muslim Question (Princeton: Princeton UP). Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses. 43:3 (September): 540-542.
2014. Review of The Republic and the Riots: Exploring Urban Violence in French Suburbs, 2005- 2007 (Oxford: Peter Lang). Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews. 43:1 (January): 107-108.
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