France

Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, writes for the New Statesman about the killing of Nahel Merzouk by a police officer and the social unrest resulting from it.

"It is a cliché to refer to the long economic boom in France that followed the Second World War—the three decades between 1945 and 1975—as les trente glorieuses. The phrase has no satisfying translation, though 'golden' hints at the éclat thrown off by the final adjective. Adopting this terminology for our ends, we might refer to the 1980s as Yve-Alain Bois’ décennie glorieuse."

Joan Wallach Scott, Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science, has been awarded an honorary doctorate from Université Paris 8.

By Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science:

The French president’s first term, with his neoliberal and authoritarian policies, has situated him on the right of the political spectrum rather than in the center as he had announced prior to being elected. But his shift has progressively gone even further with the decision to put immigration control and hardline secularism on the agenda.

On November 30, the far-right pundit Éric Zemmour announced that he would be candidate to the French presidential election. A journalist and polemicist, he was mostly known for his Islamophobic, xenophobic, racist, and sexist public statements.

Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, examines the "neoliberal authoritarian program" of French president Emmanuel Macron, whose politics were uniquely characterized as "neither left nor right" throughout his...

“The insistence that ‘laïcité’ is a fundamental principle is a cover for a continued assault on the rights of Muslim citizens in French society,” Joan W. Scott, Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science, said in a telephone interview with...

“There is a longstanding commitment to the notion that the French do gender relations differently — especially from prudish Americans — and that has to do with the French understanding of seduction,” said Joan Scott, Professor Emerita in the School...