Dr. Jennifer Selby

Position

Associate Professor
Affiliate member of the Department of Gender Studies, Memorial University.

Academics

Postdoctoral Fellowship (Harvard University), 2008
Ph.D. McMaster University, 2007
M.A. Queen's University, 2002
B.A. (Hons.) University of Winnipeg, 1999

Contact

On sabbatical 09/15 - 05/16 [Visiting Researcher, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris].

Office: Arts and Administration, 5029
Office hours: By appointment
Telephone: 001 (709) 864-4046
Email: jselby@mun.ca
Personal website

Research Interests

Islam in the West (France, Canada); Method and Theory, Secularization Theory; Islam, Interpretations of Sharia; Women and Islam, Gender Studies; Religion and Public Policy in Canada.

Current Research

My current research is centered upon two broad ethnographic-based projects: In the first place, I continue to conduct research on gender politics, Islam and secularism in contemporary France. I have broadened this area with new transnational fieldwork in Montréal, Algeria and in a Parisian suburb for a project examining Islam and marriage (see this information brochure [PDF]).

In the second place, I am continuing research in Canada begun during my postdoctoral fellowship in the Islam in the West program at Harvard University. I am now examining orthodoxy and religious negotiations in a research project in St. John’s, NL, with collaborators Lori G. Beaman (U Ottawa) and Amélie Barras (York U). We held a 2-day workshop, Re-posing the 'Muslim Question' June 26- 27 (PDF), 2014 in conjunction with this project.

I am also co-investigator (PI Roxanne Marcotte, UQAM) on a qualitative SSHRC-funded program, New Muslim Public Spheres in the Digital Age: Identity, Community, Diversity and Authority in Canada.

Courses taught

RELS 1000 - The Religions of the World
RELS 2340 - Islam
ANTH/SOC/RELS 2350 - Religious Institutions
RELS 2800 - Gender and Sexualities in Western Religions
RELS 2850 - Religion and the Law: The Secular in Contemporary Canada
ANTH/RELS 3053 - Anthropology of Religion
RELS 3058 - Religion and Politics
RELS 3800 - Re/presentations of Muslim Women: Gender, Colonialism, Islam
RELS 3810 - Religion, Society and Culture
RELS 6100 - Method and Theory in Religious Studies
RELS 6110 - The Thesis

Summer Field School 2016: French Religion and Culture in Context (Bordeaux, France. July 1-29, 2016).

Student Supervision

Postdoctoral
Dube, Dr. Siphiwe (2011). Connected (Mis)Understanding: Masculinity-Masculinities-Muscular Religion in Canada.

Ph.D. Dissertations (Committee member)

Al-Harahsheh, Entessar (in progress). Interdiciplinary Ph.D. Research topic: Emotive Language in Arab Political Discourse.
Jackson, Stephen (in progress). Interdiciplinary Ph.D. Research topic: Educating for Global Citizenship.

M.A. Theses
Funk, Cory (in progress). Research topic: Examining Islam Online in Canada.
Etkin, Prudence (in progress). Research topic: Comparing Laïcité in France and Quebec.
Cauz, Emily (in progress). Anthropology. (Co-supervised with Dr. Lincoln Addision, Department of Anthropology, MUN).
Harvey-Cromwel, Liam (2015). Rebooting Islam: An Exploration of the Internet and Muslim Communities in St. John’s Newfoundland.
Williams, Jennifer (2015). Religion in the Newfoundland and Labrador Multiculturalism Policy: An Examination of Muslim Experiences and Policy Objectives.
White, Megan (2011). The Post-Conversion Social Experience of New Muslims in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Akter, Nasrin (2010). The Religious Lives of Muslim Bangladeshi Women in St. John’s, Canada. (Co-supervised with Dr. Elizabeth Yeoman, Department of Education, MUN)

B.A. Honours Essays

Shannon, Jamie (2011). New Muslims in St. John’s, Canada.
Lobel, Rachel (2010). The Category of Islam in media representations of Hamas.

Recent Publications

Forthcoming

"Muslimness and Multiplicity in Qualitative Research and in Governmental Reports in Canada" for Critical Research on Religion (27 pgs).

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.

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.
“Hijab Debates in Europe.” In The Handbook of European Islam. Ed. Jocelyne Cesari. New York: Oxford University Press, 701- 741.
“France.” In The Handbook of European Islam. Ed. Jocelyne Cesari. New York: Oxford University Press, 23-63.
"C’est plus traditionnel ici qu’au bled: Analyse socio-spatiale du traditionalisme religieux dans une banlieue parisienne." Ethnologie Française 44: 3 515-526.

2013

“Promoting the Everyday: Public Relations and Pro-Sharia Advocacy in Ontario, Canada’s 'Sharia Debate'.” Religions [Special issue: Islam, Immigration, and Identity, ed. Todd Green] 4:3 (September): 423-442.
“Polygamy in the Parisian Banlieues: Discourse and Debate on the 2005 French Urban Riots” In Polygamy’s Rights and Wrongs: Perspectives on Harm, Family, and Law. Eds. Gillian Calder and Lori Beaman. Vancouver: UBC Press, 89-103.

2012

Questioning French Secularism: Gender Politics and Islam in a Parisian Suburb. The Contemporary Anthropology of Religion Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Press.
Debating Sharia: Islam, Gender Politics and Family Law Arbitration, co-edited with Anna C. Korteweg. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Read a short overview (PDF).
“Suburban Muslims: 2004 Debates Outside of Toronto and Paris.” In Religion and Canadian Society: Traditions, Transitions, and Innovations. Second Edition. Ed. Lori G. Beaman. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc., 115-136.
“How ‘They’ Construct ‘Us’: Reflections on Binaries and the Politics of Identity in the Field.” In Missionary Impositions: Conversion, Resistance, and other Challenges to Objectivity in Religious Ethnography, eds. Hillary Crane and Deana Weibel. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 47-62.
“Construing the Secular: Implications of the Ontario Sharia Debate.” ’ In Debating Sharia: Islam, Gender Politics and Family Law Arbitration. Eds. A.C. Korteweg and J. A. Selby. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 351-376.
Co-authored with Korteweg (Selby first author). “Introduction: Situating the Debate in Ontario.” In Debating Sharia: Islam, Gender Politics and Family Law Arbitration. Eds. A.C. Korteweg and J. A. Selby. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 12-34.
Co-authored with Korteweg (Korteweg first author). “Conclusion: Debating Sharia in the West.” In Debating Sharia: Islam, Gender Politics and Family Law Arbitration. Eds. A.C. Korteweg and J. A. Selby. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 377-394.

2011

“French Secularism as a Guarantor of Women’s Rights? Islam and Gender Politics in a Parisian Banlieue.” Culture and Religion 12:4 (December): 441-462.
“Islam in France Reconfigured: Republican Islam in the 2010 Gerin Report.” The Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 31:3 (September): 383-398.

2009

“Marriage-partner Preference among Muslims in France: Reproducing Tradition in the Maghrebian Diaspora.” Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Europe 9:2 (September): 4-16.
“When Distance is Not Geographical: Paris and a North-eastern Banlieue.” Anthropology Now 1:2 (September): 88-93.

Recent Non-refereed Contributions

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.