France
Religious Diversity and Conflict in France
June 4-11, 2009
Itinerary
This 8-day seminar takes place in Paris. Click here to see the Summer 2009 Seminar itinerary.
Seminar Fee
CIEE Member: $3,075 Non-Member: $3,275
Academic Content (please note this is tentative and subject to change)
Lectures
- Diversity in religion and belief in France: an introduction
- The pilgrim and the convert, the mystic and the atheist
- Laïcité, the French notion of secular society
- Religious diversity and conflict and the secular state: a view from the Ministry of the Interior
- Handling the needs of prisoners: views from Muslim and Protestant chaplains
- Religious diversity and conflict in the hospital: views from Protestant, Jewish, Catholic and Muslim chaplains
- The context of the French school system, public and private
- Jewish-Muslim conflict and misunderstanding among schoolchildren
- Diversity in the curriculum?
- Religious diversity and conflict in the army and the police
- Round table discussion: diversity and belief in everyday life; the chaplain the teacher as intermediaries
Co-curricular Site Visits & Field Trips
- Hôpital Avicenne, Bobigny
- Visit to a prison, discussion
- Visit to a public school and a private school, discussion with educators
- Visit to a police training program
- Visit to the Ecole Militaire
Rationale
The French policy of “laïcité” imposes state neutrality in matters of religion, in order to allow individuals to live out their beliefs in a private manner. But religious diversity, conflict, and prejudice still exist. The huge majority of French people are non-practicing Catholics; what does this mean for Muslims (many of them post-colonial immigrants), Jews (including North African, Eastern European, and long-standing French communities), Protestants (some of them long-standing French Huguenots and others recently-arrived evangelicals, often of post-colonial African origin)?
This seminar approaches this complex question through a key social actor – the chaplain – and through key sites where questions of belief and unbelief, life and death, are faced. The seminar will be launched with talks by major scholars of religion and society, and social actors in the schools and the government. Then we will meet with chaplains who will present their work and accompany us on visits to prisons, hospitals, and schools. At the end of the seminar, we will participate in a round table discussion with speakers, including the chaplains.
Through this process, we hope to open up a few important questions. In the sites we visit, what kinds of conflicts and differences emerge? When and why are conflicts and differences interpreted in terms of religion, rather than in terms of class, origin, or race? How does the context of French secularism play out in everyday situations? Although the seminar will focus on the three major religious minorities, we will also discuss Catholics and ex-Catholics, and non-religious kinds of belief and belonging.
Host Institutions
The principal host institution will be the Institute for the Study of Islam and Societies of the Muslim World (IISMM). Linked to the prestigious Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, the IISMM is an interdisciplinary center established in 1999 to support creative scholarship about Muslims and Islam, and several of IISMM’s scholars focus on other religious minorities as well. The IISMM promotes research and diffusion of knowledge and is characterized by its interdisciplinary perspective.
Seminar Leadership
Dr. Hamit Bozarslan is co-Director of the IISMM and lecturer at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Dr. Hannah Taïeb has a Ph.D. in Anthropology from New York University. Since 2000, she has worked in the field of study abroad, and is currently Resident Director of the Contemporary French Studies program at the CIEE Study Center in Paris, where she teaches Intercultural Communication and a class on multiculturalism and cultural mixing in the French context.
Click on the links below to learn more about participating on an IFDS.