[Co-organized with Qalqalah قلقلة, an independent
trilingual editorial and curatorial platform founded in 2018
in France and collectively run by Line Ajan, Virginie
Bobin, Montasser Drissi, Victorine Grataloup,
Vir Andres Hera and Salma Mochtari.]
Hostile Environment(s) and Qalqalah قلقلة invite Sara R. Farris (Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London) and Houda Asal (independent researcher) to discuss their respective work on femonationalism and islamophobia in the European context. Amidst rising hostilities against decolonial, feminist and intersectional discourses and positions, we will ask how to reclaim vocabularies that have been diverted by neo-liberal, neo-conservative voices; how to enact radical alternatives; and how to practice situated solidarities. This online event will be moderated by Edwin Nasr (writer and independent researcher).
In her book In the Name of Women’s Rights (Duke University Press, 2017), Sara R. Farris examines the demands for women's rights from an unlikely collection of right-wing nationalist political parties, neoliberals, and some feminist theorists and policy makers. Focusing on early 21st century France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Farris labels this exploitation and co-optation of feminist themes by anti-Islam and xenophobic campaigns as “femonationalism.” Her book offers a transnational and transversal perspective that allows us to reflect on the current backlash taking place accross Europe against academics, universities, intellectuals, activists, NGO’s and artists who support decolonial, anti-racist, feminist and intersectional positions under the guise of so-called universalism, secularism and human rights; and amidst rising islamophobia, racism and State violence that are fueled by the political, economical and sanitary crisis and their resulting “states of emergency”.
In Identifying as Arab in Canada (Fenwood Publishing, 2020), Houda Asal explores the migration from Machrek (the Middle East) to Canada from the late 19th century through the 1970s. She examines the public, collective existence they created in Canada in order to understand both the identity Arabs have constructed for themselves here, and the identity that has been constructed for them by the Canadian state. After Houda Asal received her PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, she moved to Canada to pursue her research at McGill University before coming back to France where she now works as an independent researcher on racism, islamophobia and discriminations. She is currently preparing an essay analyzing the circulation of the term “islamo-leftism” and its translations in French, English and Arabic languages; and how it reflects or crystallizes the current conflicts over the so-called French Republican values and, more broadly, the generalization of unabashed islamophobia in Europe, blurring traditional political divides (to be published on qalqalah.org this summer).
Both Qalqalah قلقلة and Hostile Environment(s) were founded in response to "hostile" political environments and discourses pervading our respective working contexts. We are interested in the uses and misuse of language in this political context; in how certain terms are misinterpreted, confiscated or repurposed in order to serve ideological agendas; and how translation and mistranslation (of vocabularies, discourses and ideas) play a role into that. The event In the Name of… Femonationalism and Islamophobia in Europe is part of a series of commissions, conversations and events respectively produced by each our platforms to address these issues, as an attempt to reclaim an alternative and emancipatory use of language and translation within these contexts.
[Co-organized with Qalqalah قلقلة ,
an independent trilingual editorial and curatorial
platform founded in 2018 in France and collectively
run by Line Ajan, Virginie Bobin, Montasser Drissi,
Victorine Grataloup, Vir Andres Hera
and Salma Mochtari.]
Hostile Environment(s) and Qalqalah قلقلة invite Sara R. Farris (Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London) and Houda Asal (independent researcher) to discuss their respective work on femonationalism and islamophobia in the European context. Amidst rising hostilities against decolonial, feminist and intersectional discourses and positions, we will ask how to reclaim vocabularies that have been diverted by neo-liberal, neo-conservative voices; how to enact radical alternatives; and how to practice situated solidarities. This online event will be moderated by Edwin Nasr (writer and independent researcher).
In her book In the Name of Women’s Rights (Duke University Press, 2017), Sara R. Farris examines the demands for women's rights from an unlikely collection of right-wing nationalist political parties, neoliberals, and some feminist theorists and policy makers. Focusing on early 21st century France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Farris labels this exploitation and co-optation of feminist themes by anti-Islam and xenophobic campaigns as “femonationalism.” Her book offers a transnational and transversal perspective that allows us to reflect on the current backlash taking place accross Europe against academics, universities, intellectuals, activists, NGO’s and artists who support decolonial, anti-racist, feminist and intersectional positions under the guise of so-called universalism, secularism and human rights; and amidst rising islamophobia, racism and State violence that are fueled by the political, economical and sanitary crisis and their resulting “states of emergency”.
In Identifying as Arab in Canada (Fenwood Publishing, 2020), Houda Asal explores the migration from Machrek (the Middle East) to Canada from the late 19th century through the 1970s. She examines the public, collective existence they created in Canada in order to understand both the identity Arabs have constructed for themselves here, and the identity that has been constructed for them by the Canadian state. After Houda Asal received her PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, she moved to Canada to pursue her research at McGill University before coming back to France where she now works as an independent researcher on racism, islamophobia and discriminations. She is currently preparing an essay analyzing the circulation of the term “islamo-leftism” and its translations in French, English and Arabic languages; and how it reflects or crystallizes the current conflicts over the so-called French Republican values and, more broadly, the generalization of unabashed islamophobia in Europe, blurring traditional political divides (to be published on qalqalah.org this summer).
Both Qalqalah قلقلة and Hostile Environment(s) were founded in response to "hostile" political environments and discourses pervading our respective working contexts. We are interested in the uses and misuse of language in this political context; in how certain terms are misinterpreted, confiscated or repurposed in order to serve ideological agendas; and how translation and mistranslation (of vocabularies, discourses and ideas) play a role into that. The event In the Name of… Femonationalism and Islamophobia in Europe is part of a series of commissions, conversations and events respectively produced by each our platforms to address these issues, as an attempt to reclaim an alternative and emancipatory use of language and translation within these contexts.