Religion Professor Kirsten Wesselhoeft hosts an event celebrating her new book, "Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France." She will give a talk and have a question and answer period.

Public discourse about Islam in France is often framed by the assumption that robust Muslim communities pose a threat to French solidarity, or fraternité. In the face of increasing state surveillance and repression in the 21st century, and racialized and gendered discrimination, young French Muslim activists have continued to purposefully spark debate about the values that anchor collective life, in a spirit of fraternal and sororal solidarity. Some activists call this ethic “fraternal critique.” In her new book, Kirsten Wesselhoeft draws out this concept in order to highlight profound insights about the place for critique in civic life. She argues that such disagreements, far from dividing communities, in fact constitute a form of belonging—the arguments that people keep showing up for. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork and detailed analysis of recent French law and policy, Wesselhoeft argues that unity never needs to come at the expense of dissent. Instead, fraternal critique can teach all of us how to build communities that are worth fighting over and worth fighting for.

Sponsored by Africana Studies and Religion.

Campus community only, please.