Kristen Brustad, Chair
WMB 6.102, 306 Inner Campus Drive F9400, Austin, TX 78712 • 512-471-3881
"A Tale of Two Scandals: Sexual and Legal conflict in France and French Algeria"
Fri, March 5, 2010 • 3:00 PM • Texas Union, Sinclair Suite (3.128)
A lecture by Judith Surkis, Harvard University
In France in 2008, politicians and the press widely denounced a marriage annulment that was granted to two French citizens of Moroccan origin. For many, the court's decision represented an "Islamicization" of secular French law. In her lecture, Judith Surkis offers a historical analysis of this controversy, in order to reframe contemporary discussions of the conflicts between Islam and French principles of secularism and sexual equality. By exploring the history of the relationship between the civil and Canon law in France and the treatment of Islamic law in French Algeria, the talk re-evaluates what was at stake in this scandal.
Sponsored by: Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Department of History, Center for European Studies, Gender Studies Colloquium, and the Center for Women's and Gender Studies
