OSC Scientific Seminar 2021-2022

Friday 3rd June 2022, 9:30 am
Online, via Zoom

Suspect Citizenship

Jean Beaman

Associate Professor of Sociology in the University of California, Santa Barbara

Incidents of state violence and activism against that violence illustrate the continuing significance of race and the persistence of white supremacy in France, the United States, and worldwide.
Based on past and current ethnographic research and interviews with ethnic minorities in the Parisian metropolitan region, this talk argues that, despite France’s colorblind and Republican ethos, France’s “visible minorities” function under a “suspect citizenship” in which their full societal belonging is never granted.
I focus on the growing problem of state-sponsored violence against ethnic minorities which reveals how France is creating a “bright boundary” between whites and non-whites, furthering disparate outcomes based on race and ethnic origin.
By considering the multifaceted dimensions of citizenship and belonging in France, I demonstrate the limitations of full societal inclusion for France’s non-white denizens and how French Republicanism continues to mark, rather than erase, racial and ethnic distinctions. 

Registration is mandatory. Thanks! (Zoom users: the link for the videoconference will be sent one day before)

To find out more: Jean Beaman homepage

Last papers:

• with Jennifer Fredette, “The US/France Contrast Frame and Black Lives Matter in France”,  Perspectives on Politics [Forthcoming]
• “Racial Gaslighting in a Non-Racial France”, Contemporary French & Francophone Studies/SITES [Forthcoming]
• “Towards a Reading of Black Lives Matter in Europe”, Journal of Common Market Studies Annual Review, 59: 103-114, 2021
• “France’s Ahmeds and Muslim Others: The Entanglement of Racism and Islamophobia”, French Cultural Studies, 32(3): 269-279, 2021