Jews and Muslims in Modern and Contemporary France
This course interrogates the racial, national, and religious identity categories that underpin Jewish-Muslim relations. We will do this through a sustained focus on the historical and present contingencies of concepts of race, religion, and national identity. The readings for this course are interdisciplinary and will allow us to focus on the recent history of Jewish-Muslim relations in France as well as contemporary realities. We will additionally consider media and popular culture representations (novels, films, and comics) of Jews, Muslims, and their relations. We will pay particular attention to the dynamic interplay between history, lived experience, and representation. In this way, this course examines how Jewish-Muslim relations in France have been shaped by a variety of actors—including, most importantly, the French state—throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Adi Saleem Bharat, Ph.D. 