[ecrea] CFP: Media Representations of Islam and Muslims

*Media Representations of Islam and Muslims*

*/An international and interdisciplinary conference/*

*/Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France (19-20 juin 
2018)/*

‘Islamophobia’ and ‘race’ are contested terms in contemporary political 
and media discourse around the world(Hajjat & Mohammed, 2013; Massoumi 
et al., 2017; Sayyid & Vakil, 2009). In the case of heated debates in 
France, for example, academic and/or antiracist arguments – themselves 
far from homogenous – struggle to be heard, and these terms are often 
censored more or less explicitly. The absence of official statistics on 
ethnic and religious diversity in France (Simon, 2008), which 
purportedly protects minorities from discrimination, also inadvertently 
makes invisible the social and cultural inequalities that nevertheless 
exist; and the constitutional establishment of France as a secular state 
that presupposes equality and freedom leads to problems for the 
recognition of difference in an increasingly multicultural society 
(Modood & Webner, 1997; Lentin & Titley, 2011), as well as tensions 
between the protected values of freedom of expression and freedom of 
religion (Alicino, 2015).

Similarly, in Francophone and Anglophone academic literature alike, 
there remains no clear consensus on the definition of either 
Islamophobia or racism, which, more often than not, continue to be 
studied separately. In contrast to the political and media rhetoric, 
however, academic research into these issues from a wide range of 
disciplines has revealed that systemic and structural discrimination is 
in fact as widespread in France as they are in other western countries, 
with non-white people suffering disproportionately in terms of 
unemployment (Wacquant, 2009), imprisonment (D. Fassin, 2011) and 
education (Keaton, 2006), while international NGOs (Amnesty 
International, Human Rights Watch) have repeatedly criticised the 
failure of successive French governments to independently investigate 
police violence and discrimination against ethnic minorities. Contrary 
to the clash of civilisations thesis and the emphasis on the need for 
Muslims to integrate and accommodate their religion or culture with 
‘republican’ or ‘western’ values, studies on the everyday lives and 
personal opinions of Muslims in France and other European countries have 
cast doubt on the extent to which any such contradiction exists (Göle, 
2015; Massoumi, 2015; Zerouala, 2015), while others have warned against 
the increasing sacralisation of laïcité as a civic religion (Roy, 2013) 
and the false dichotomy of anti-sexism and anti-racism when debating 
issues such as ‘the veil’ (Bouyahia et Sana, 2013; Delphy, 2008).

Increasingly, effort has been made to supplement research into the 
characteristics of Muslim people and religious, cultural or political 
identity, with more of an emphasis on Islamophobia as the result of 
political practices that disproportionately affect Muslim people 
(Massoumi et al., 2017), and to supplement quantitative research into 
diversity with qualitative research into the perception of 
discrimination (Dubet et al, 2013). Transcending the dominant focus on 
immigration and integration, and recognising the ‘internal exclusion’ of 
non-migrants (Balibar, 2007), as well as the role of religion as a site 
of cultural politics rather than an apolitical aspect of the private 
sphere (Fernando, 2014), some scholars have sought to shift attention 
away from the ‘Muslim problem’ and onto the ‘republican problem’ 
instead. That is, engaging with the inherent tensions and contradictions 
of the secular state, republican values and ‘secular-republican power’ 
(Fernando, 2014; see also Titley et al, 2017), rather than those of 
French Muslims and what they eat or wear. Others have located the 
concept of Islamophobia and the social construction of the ‘Muslim 
problem’ in the long-term history of international migration and 
colonial racism (Bancel et al., 2015; Hajjat & Mohammed, 2013;Poinsot et 
Weber, 2014). Recognising the complexity of the social construction of 
‘race’ and citing discursive slippages between the figure of the 
‘Muslim’, the ‘Arab’ and other terms, as well as the ways in which 
Muslims are perceived in racialised terms, some scholars (D. Fassin & E. 
Fassin, 2006; Mazouz, 2017) have discussed the phenomenon of ‘racism 
without race’, using the term /racialization/ to emphasise the process 
whereby certain identities are socially constructed as ‘other’ and 
categorised hierarchically (du Bois, 1994; Fanon, 1967; D. Fassin, 2011; 
Gilroy, 1987; Miles, 1989; Murji & Solomos, 2005), and drawing on 
cultural and media studies approaches to reveal the ways in which ‘race’ 
intersects with gender and class (Anthias, 2012).

Such approaches have also been important sources for critiquing the role 
of the media in this process of racialization (Cervulle, 2013; Hall et 
al., 1978; Petley & R. Richardson, 2011; Poole & J. Richardson, 2006; 
Rabah, 1998; Said, 1997; Tevanian, 2005; 2006). But, as Hajjat & 
Mohammed (2013: 116) have argued, analyses of media representations, 
discourses and content (Bertault et al, 2009; Deltombe, 2005; Macé, 
2009; Sian et al, 2013) need to be complemented by more sociological 
accounts of the conditions of media production and the routine practices 
of journalists, so as to understand the distance between the habitus of 
professional journalists and elites, on the one hand, and the ‘popular 
classes’ on the other, as well as the discrimination experienced by 
those from ethnic minority backgrounds working within the media 
industries themselves, and the economic and structural constraints of 
news agenda setting.

This conference aims to bring together researchers from a variety of 
disciplines (sociology, information-communication, history, law, media 
and cultural studies, etc.), from France and from abroad, as well as 
professionals from the media industry, to further debate and develop our 
understanding of the media’s role in the construction of the ‘Muslim 
problem’ – in France and beyond. Because this is an international and 
interdisciplinary conference, we are keen to receive papers that 
foreground the contribution that international and interdisciplinary 
perspectives can bring, and that highlight the different sources, 
theoretical traditions, methodological approaches and epistemological 
questions that are raised by researchers working in different fields, so 
as to provide a reflexive and critical engagement with the efficacy and 
appropriateness of terms such as Islamophobia, and of hitherto 
privileged approaches to understanding such processes and practices. As 
such, papers that are comparative – that focus on such issues in other 
countries, or on similitudes with other racisms and processes of 
mediated exclusion – are welcome, as are those that offer historical 
perspectives on their evolution, and those that combine media analyses 
with sociological research, or an engagement with interdisciplinary or 
international literatures, are particularly encouraged. Generally, 
contributions are encouraged in, but not limited to, the following areas:

-Definitions of, and debates on, terms such as Islamophobia, 
racism/racialization, mediation/mediatization and media critique.

-Theoretical, methodological and inter/disciplinary approaches and 
traditions to critiquing media and racism (cultural studies; media 
studies; postcolonial studies; critical race theory; gender studies; 
intersectionality; sociology; history; law; international relations etc.)

-Analyses of media content or discourse; media law, policy and 
regulation; or media practice and journalism ethics.

-Moral panics, media events and controversies over the veil, burkinis, 
halal meat, school meals, Christmas crèches in public buildings, 
/Charlie Hebdo/.

-Ethnic diversity, inequality and discrimination in areas such as 
housing, employment, education, the criminal justice system.

-Liberalism, republicanism, communitarianism, multiculturalism or 
cosmopolitanism.

-Secularism/s, laïcité, recognition and difference.

-Colonialism, postcolonialism, nationalism, globalisation, terrorism or 
collective memory.

-‘Race’, religion, religiosity, postsecularism, intersectionality and 
culture.

-Citizenship, rights, inclusion and exclusion.

-The balancing of freedom of expression with the freedom of religion; 
academic freedom; press freedom.

-Feminism, gender, class, intersectionality, and anti-sexism and/or 
anti-racism.

*Proposals for papers should be sent to Simon Dawes at 
**(simon.dawes /at/ uvsq.fr)* <mailto:(simon.dawes /at/ uvsq.fr)>*by Friday 16^th 
February 2018**. Decisions will be confirmed by Friday 16^th March 2018. 
The conference will take place in 19-20 June 2018. *

*Keynote Speakers:*

*Floya Anthias, Marion Dalibert, Eric Fassin, Abdellali Hajjat, Olivier 
Le Cour Grandmaison, Eric Macé, Narzanin Massoumi and Sarah Mazouz***

*Organising Committee:*

Simon Dawes ​(CHCSC, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 
Paris Saclay, France)

Marion Dalibert (GERiiCO, Université Lille 3, France)

Eric Fassin (LEGS, CNRS / Université Paris-8 / Université Paris-Ouest, 
France)

Des Freedman (Goldsmiths, University of London, Royaume Uni)

Claire Gallien (IRCL, Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier, and CNRS, 
France / Columbia University, États-Unis)

Lise Guilhamon ​(CHCSC, Université de Versailles 
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris Saclay, France)

Abdellali Hajjat (ISP, CNRS  / Université Paris-Ouest, Nanterre, Paris 
Saclay, France)

Claire Joubert (TransCrit (EA 1569), Université Paris 8, France)

Gholam Khiabany (Goldsmiths, University of London, Royaume Uni)

Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison (CRLD, Université d'Evry-Val d'Essonne, 
Paris Saclay, France)

Nadia Marzouki (CNRS, France)

Sarah Mazouz (Institut für europäische Ethnologie, Humboldt Universität 
zu Berlin, Allemagne)

Tom Mills (Aston University)

Marwan Mohammed (ERIS du CMH, CNRS, France)

Aurélien Mondon (University of Bath, Royaume Uni)

Géraldine Poels (CHCSC, Paris Saclay et Institut National Audiovisuel, 
France)

François Robinet ​(CHCSC, Université de Versailles 
Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Paris Saclay, France)

Gavan Titley (Maynooth University, Irlande / Helsinki University, Finlande)

*Sponsors:*

Centre d’histoire culturelle des sociétés contemporaines (CHCSC), 
Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ), Paris Saclay

Centre for Global Media and Democracy, Goldsmiths, University of London, 
Royaume Uni

Institut des sciences sociales du politique (ISP, UMR 7220), Université 
Paris-Ouest Nanterre, Paris Saclay

  « Mondialités Islamiques: Interfaces Francophones/Anglophones et 
Décolonialités » research programme: l’Institut de Recherche sur la 
Renaissance, l’âge Classique et les Lumières (IRCL, UMR 5186), 
Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III et l’Université Paris 8

"Poétique de l'étranger", TransCrit (EA 1569), Université Paris 8

RTP « Islams et Chercheurs dans la Cité », EHESS

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Anthias, F. (2012) ‘Hierarchies of social location, class and 
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