It has become commonplace, when French politics are discussed within and beyond France, to note the threat posed by Marine Le Pen and the Rassemblement national. Yet, two decades after the earthquake of Jean-Marie Le Pen reaching the second round of the presidential election of 2002, his daughter doing the same now seems comparatively unremarkable. Indeed, with 2027 on the horizon, the possibility of a far-right President in France, together with its racist narratives and politics, arguably now seems more plausible than at any previous point since the inauguration of the Fifth Republic.

In France or elsewhere, however, racism cannot be understood purely through reference to the far right. An increasing body of scholarship has emerged underlining the role of the parties of the traditional right and left, not to mention the current centrist government, in ‘mainstreaming’ racist discourses (Mondon & Winter 2020; Mondon 2022; Brown 2023). In the 2022 presidential elections, the candidacy of Éric Zemmour saw Le Pen outflanked on the right; however, at a time of rising Islamophobia within and beyond France, not only Zemmour but also current Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has accused Le Pen of being ‘un peu molle’ (‘a little soft’) in relation to Islam(ism). Discourses of ‘Islamo-gauchisme’ and of a putative ‘séparatisme’ have been reproduced not only in the far right, but also by members of the current government (Bechrouri 2023; Zia-Ebrahimi 2023).

These dynamics can usefully be situated within a broader, transnational rise, or resurgence, of racist politics. The role of French racism(s) in influencing racists beyond France’s borders has been shown, in tragic fashion, by the series of white supremacist mass murderers who have adopted the ‘grand remplacement’ conspiracy theory named as such by Renaud Camus. The influence of other nations, and particularly those in the Anglosphere, on France has however been underlined through the adoption, by French reactionaries, of English-language terms like ‘le wokisme’ (Amer Meziane 2023).

This hybrid workshop aims to bring together scholars working on race and racism in France to explore how racist politics have manifested in the French context; in what ways racist politics in France may be distinctively French; and how French racism relates to racism elsewhere.

Schedule

09:30-10:00: welcome and coffee

10:00 – 10:15 – opening comments

10:15-11:45: panel 1

11:45-12:15 coffee break

12:15-13:45: panel 2

13:45-14:45 lunch

14:45-16:15: panel 3

16:15-16:45 coffee break

16:45-18:15: panel 4

18:15-18:30: closing comments/next steps

Panels and papers

Panel 1 - Race, intersectionality, and religion

‘French Universalism Confronted: Reconceptualizing Race in the 21st Century’ - Sandrine F. Rajaonarivony, University of Pennsylvania

‘Le racisme en France : un héritage colonial?’ - Bienvenue Germaine Nyane, Université de Maroua (online)

‘Between reluctance and struggle: the reception of intersectionality in contemporary France’ - Noémie Ouedraogo, Université Grenoble Alpes

‘What is antisemitism according to Jewish people? The discrimination in the words of those who suffer from it’ - Solveig Hennebert, Université Lumière Lyon II

Panel 2 - French Muslims, islamophobia, and the concept of laïcité

‘Laïcité falsifiée, tranformations of racism and consequences on French Muslims’ – Alice Picards, Arènes (associate researcher) (co-authors Olivier Esteves, University of Lille/CERAPS and Julien Talpin, CNRS/CERAPS)

‘Racialization through religion: Islamophobia through the scope of French laïcité’ - Maya Jakubowicz/Ali Dilavarhoussen, Sciences Po Paris (online)

‘What is a civil Islam? An ethnographic study of a “progressive” mosque in Paris’ - Benjamin Dubrulle, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) (online)

‘Literature and the Mainstreaming of Islamophobia’ – Fraser McQueen, University of Bristol

Panel 3 - Policing race and racist policing

‘Islam and prevention of radicalization: emotions and values in the working practices and discourses of juvenile justice officials’ - Jean-Baptiste Pesquet, independent researcher (online)

‘“Tout citoyen doit travailler pour vivre”: Work and Citizenship in France after Slavery’ - Amelia Spooner, Columbia University

‘Republicanism at the local level: Muslim Organizations dealing with the state at the local level’ - Foued Nasri, Centre Max Weber (CNRS, University of Lyon) (online)

Panel 4 - State racism and the Far Right

‘Laïcité, the State and the Far right’ - Jim Wolfreys, King’s College London

‘If the far right is not racist, then what is? French media reporting on the far right and its effects’ - Katy Brown, Maynooth University

‘The rise of the far right in France and the EU elections: new stage or same old story’ - Aurelien Mondon, University of Bath

‘Collusions of carceral antiracism and the fascist right in contemporary France: a call for an abolitionist sociology’ - Vera Chapiro, University of Bristol (online)