Professor

 

A5029
Department of Religion and Culture, Arts and Administration Building
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1C 5S7 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 3385 Religion & the Law in Canada
RELS 3058 Religion & Politics

Bio

Dr. Selby is jointly appointed to Political Science with the Department of Religion and Culture. In 2024-25, she is the director of the faculty’s Nexus Centre for research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Broadly, her work examines contemporary secular politics in Canadian, Québécois and French contexts. Her most recent book, Secular Sensibilities (UNC Press, 2025), considers the emotional, affective, and embodied nature of secularism, drawing on transnational fieldwork in Algeria, France and Québec and secularism studies theory. She currently directs a SSHRC-funded research project, Secularism on the Move / La laïcité en mouvement. She has also published extensively on Islam and Muslims in France and Canada.

Selected Publications

Books

In Press. Muslim Narratives and Lives in Newfoundland and Labrador (edited volume, Memorial University Press).

Jennifer A. Selby. 2025. Secular Sensibilities: Algerian Marriage and Migration to France and Québec (Where Religion Lives series, University of North Carolina Press).

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).

Recent Articles & Chapters

Saaz Taher, Amélie Barras and JA Selby. 2024. “Quebecois Laïcité and its Canadian Multicultural Other in the Debates Surrounding Law 21.” CanadianJournal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/cls.2024.11.

Jennifer A. Selby and Rehan Sayeed. 2023. “Religious authorities in the digital age: The case of Muslims in Canada.” Contemporary Islam 17: 467-488, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11562-023-00536-7

Jennifer A. Selby and Sobia Shaikh. 2023. “Wait, what? Islamophobia exists in Newfoundland and Labrador?”: Theorizing the Polite Dismissal of Anti-Islamophobia Public Engagement” in Islamophobia as a Form of Radicalisation: Perspectives on Media, Academia and Socio-political Scapes from Europe and Canada. Eds. A. Mekki-Berrada and L. d’Haenens, Brill, 211-228.

Jennifer A. Selby. 2022. “‘There is No Place for the State in the Bedrooms of the Nation’ or The Case of Bill 21: A Response to Goodwin’s Gender/Religion Lens” in Key Categories in the Study of Religion: Contexts and Critiques. Ed. RebekkaKing. Equinox, 162-175.

Jennifer A. Selby. 2022. “Romance and the Male Secular Body: The Case of Algerian Men in France and Québec,” The Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 90:1 (March): 248- 269, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfac023

Jennifer A. Selby, Amélie Barras and L.G.Beaman. 2021. “Who are Muslims in Canada? Analysis of the Qualitative Literature 1997-2017,” in Producing Islam(s) in Canada. Eds. Amélie Barras, Jennifer Selby, and Melanie Adrian, University of Toronto Press, 91-119.

Jennifer A. Selby and Cory Funk. 2020. “Hashtagging ‘Good’ Muslim Performances Online.” (first author, with Cory Funk). Journal of Media and Religion. 19:2  35-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2020.1770543

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 vécureligieux 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 SchepelernJohansen 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’Étatfrançais.” 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.