Dickinson to Host Lecture on French Secularism and Religious Head Coverings
Mayanthi Fernando
Lecture to explore identity, experiences of French Muslims
By Ella Layton '26
Professor Mayanthi Fernando will visit Dickinson to give a lecture on the concept of laïcité (secularism) in France. This free, public event, “Muslim France and the Contradictions of Laïcité: A History of the Present,” will take place on Tuesday, April 22, at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter (ATS) Auditorium, 360 W. Louther St.
Fernando will explain how laïcité has not only been used to separate religion and politics but also as a tool for the French state to define what counts as religion, belief, practice and symbol. Fernando will also explore how the concept of laïcité has constructed a contemporary idea of what it means to be French and how this complicates the lives of visibly Muslim French people, particularly with regard to the veiling of Muslim women and girls.
Fernando is a professor of anthropology at the University of California Santa Cruz and the provost of Kresge College, a living-learning community for UC Santa Cruz’s undergraduate students. Previously, she taught at UC Berkeley, Wesleyan University, Washington University in St. Louis and the City College of New York. She has also received residential fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe and the Museum of World Cultures in Leiden. She is the author of The Republic Unsettled: Muslim French and the Contradictions of Secularism (Duke University Press, 2014), which explores how French Muslims navigate their religion and traditions under the legislation of secularism. Fernando’s current project on secularity and the Anthropocene will culminate in her second book, Companion Spirits: Beyond the Anthroposecular.
This Clarke Forum event is co-sponsored by the Popel Shaw Center for Race & Ethnicity; the Women’s & Gender Resource Center; the departments of women’s, gender & sexuality studies, Africana studies, international studies, sociology and French & Francophone studies; the Middle East studies program; the Center for Sustainability Education; and the Center for Spirituality & Social Justice. In addition, this program was initiated by the Clarke Forum’s student project managers. For more information, visit www.clarkeforum.org or email clarkeforum@dickinson.edu.
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Published March 27, 2025