Citation: Race on Display in 20th- and 21st-Century France, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2016.
I did an interview about my book on the New Books in French Studies Podcast.
Race on Display in 20th- and 21st- Century France addresses a central tension in contemporary France: the relationship between race, ethnicity, immigration, and national identity. The project turns the tables on the rhetoric of “internal otherness,” asking its reader not to spot those deemed France’s so-called “others” but rather to deconstruct the very gazing impulses that produce them. This book is about how postcolonial Francophone immigrants and their descendants are made—and make themselves—visible in contemporary France’s socio-political, historical, and above all cultural realms. It understands “race” broadly, and, as such, places whiteness under scrutiny alongside racial and ethnic minorities.
This book draws from a diverse and engaging corpus of 20th- and 21st-century French and Francophone literature, fashion, dance, performance art, children’s comics, and popular music.
Read more about it on LUP’s website.