© ARR
Andrea Khalil
Research project
French Islam: Institutions and Discourses
Summary of the research project
This project draws on literary analysis, contemporary social sciences, and first hand interviews to examine racial discourses about Muslims in France. With the strength of historical context we see how Muslims have been racialized, through discourses, institutions, and a history of colonial domination. I aim to contextualize discourses, so-called theories of ‘knowledge’ about Muslims. This historical context can allow us to articulate Islam in France beyond this reductionist and racial framework and understand its imbrication with institutional and national exclusions of Muslim communities. Through an analysis of the current institutions and discourses to which French Muslims are subjected one can hope to shift institutional dynamics relating to these demographics.
Biography
Andrea Khalil is a Professor at the City University of New York in the Department of Comparative Literature at Queens College (CUNY) and in the Doctoral Program in French and the Program in Middle Eastern Studies at the Graduate Center (CUNY). She has conducted research in several Mediterranean countries: France, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Libya. Her experience in Tunisia is extensive, with many research trips there including being a Fulbright Scholar (2012-2013) and as Director of Le Centre d’Etudes Maghrébines à Tunis. She is the Editor of The Journal of North African Studies.
