Jennifer Selby

Professor

A5029
Department of Political Science, Science Building
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1B 3X9 Canada

Telephone: (709) 864-4046
Email: jselby[at]mun[dot]ca

 Academics

BA Hons (University of Winnipeg); MA (Queen’s); PhD (McMaster University)

Areas for Student Research Supervision

  • International Politics: France and the Francophone World
  • Religion and secularism
  • Feminist theory
  • Gender and politics
  • Islam in the North Atlantic world

Examples of Recent Courses Taught

RELS 2850 Religion & the Law in Canada
RELS 3058 Religion & Politics

Bio

Dr. Selby is cross-appointed to Political Science with the Department of Religious Studies. Broadly, her work examines contemporary secular politics in Canadian, Québécois and French contexts. She is currently completing a book manuscript that analyses the “secular body” in contemporary France and Québec, and is beginning new work examining elements of race and gender in transnational networks of secularism in the Francophone world. She has also published extensively on Islam and Muslims in France and Canada.

Selected Publications

Books

Amélie Barras, Jennifer A. Selby and Melanie Adrian, eds. 2022. Producing Islam(s) in Canada: On Knowledge, Positionality and Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (428 pages).

 Jennifer A. Selby, Amélie Barras and Lori G. Beaman. 2018. Beyond Accommodation: Everyday Narratives of Muslim Canadians. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press (284 pages).

 Jennifer A. Selby. 2012. Questioning French Secularism: Gender Politics and Islam in a Parisian Surburb. Anthropology of Religion Series. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (241 pages).

 Anna C. Korteweg and Jennifer A. Selby, eds. 2012. Debating Sharia: Islam, Gender Politics and Family Law Arbitration. Toronto: University of Toronto Press (397 pages).

 Articles & Chapters

Jennifer A. Selby, Amélie Barras and Lori G. Beaman. 2020. “L’angle mort de la « laïcité ouverte » : Les processus de navigation et négociations dans le vécu religieux au Canada.” Social Compass  67:1  45-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0037768619894513

Jennifer A. Selby. 2019. “Required Romance: On Secular Sensibilities in Recent French Marriage and Immigration Regulations” in Secular Bodies, Affects, and Emotions: European Configurations. Eds. Nadia Fadil, Birgitte Schepelern Johansen and Monique Scheer. Bloomsbury, 157-169.

Jennifer A. Selby, Amélie Barras and Lori G. Beaman. 2018. “Le jeu des figures et ses règles: le role des figures musulmanes masculines dans la vie quotidienne des musulmanes canadiennes”. Revue Anthropologie et Sociétés 42:2 (April) 155-182. https://doi-org.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/10.7202/1045128ar

Jennifer A. Selby. 2018. “‘Secularism’ in the Ontario Sharia Debate.” In The Shari’a: History, Ethics and Law, Muslim Heritage Series. Ed. Amyn Sajoo. London: I.B. Tauris, 215-230.

Amélie Barras, Jennifer A. Selby and Lori G. Beaman. 2018. “Rethinking Canadian Discourses of ‘Reasonable Accommodation.” Social Inclusion [Special issue: Complex Religion, ed. Melissa J. Wilde] 6:2 162-172. DOI: 10.17645/si.v6i2.1443 

Jennifer A. Selby. 2017. “Le bled en banlieue: Le mariage musulman face à l’État français.” Ethnologie française. Special Issue on “Islam in France.” (December) 4: 693-705. https://doi.org/10.3917/ethn.174.0703

Diana L. Gustafson and Jennifer A. Selby. 2016. "Theorizing de-Christianization in Women's Reproductive Lives in Newfoundland and Labrador." Women's Studies International Forum 59: (November-December) 17-25. DOI:10.1016/j.wsif.2016.08.006

Jennifer A. Selby. 2016. “Muslimness and Multiplicity in Qualitative Research and in Government Reports in Canada.” Critical Research on Religion. 4:1 (April): 72-89. https://doi-org.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/10.1177/2050303216630298

Lori G. Beaman, Jennifer A. Selby and Amélie Barras. 2016. “No Mosque, No Refugees: Some Reflections on Syrian Refugees and the Construction of Religion in Canada”. In The Refugee Crisis and Religion: Secularism, Security and Hospitality in Question. Eds. Luca Mavelli and Erin Wilson. Rowman and Littlefield, 77-96.

Amélie Barras, Jennifer A. Selby and Lori G. Beaman. 2016. “In/Visible Religion in Public Institutions: Canadian Muslim Public Servants”. In Religion and the Exercise of Public Authority. Eds. Benjamin Berger and Richard Moon. London: Hart Publishing, 95-110.

 Jennifer A. Selby. 2014. “Un/veiling Women’s Bodies: Secularism and Sexuality in Full-face Veil Prohibitions in France and Québec” Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 43: 3 (September): 439-466. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008429814526150

Jennifer A. Selby. 2014. "C’est plus traditionnel ici qu’au bled: Analyse socio-spatiale du traditionalisme religieux dans une banlieue parisienne." Ethnologie Française 44: 3 (septembre): 515-526. https://doi.org/10.3917/ethn.143.0513