Fabricating difference
By: edited by Steven W. Ramey
Series: Working with culture on the edge; Working with Culture on the edge
Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd.
Published: 2017
Place of publication: Sheffield, South Yorkshire; Bristol, CT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 187
ISBN-13: 9781781794869; 9781781794876
Subjects: Muslims; Group identity; Critical theory
Description: "The fabrication of groups as different, as other, often has significant consequences, including violence and discrimination. This volume focuses on the discourses that construct Islam in the aftermath of traumatic events and thus illustrates how academic analysis of the fabrication of difference can contribute significantly to public discourse. It centers on two critical analyses by accomplished scholars who have written publicly on the constructions of Islam and Muslims as others. Mayanthi Fernando analyzes the rhetoric surrounding French laïcité (often translated as secularism) in the aftermath of the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris in 2015, highlighting the ways the majority uses the language of laïcité to diminish the presence of minorities. Aaron Hughes analyzes how scholars and others construct Islam in response to acts of violence attributed to people who identify with Islam, thus illustrating how critical academic analysis can contribute to the understanding of both the contestation and ideology behind groups such as ISIS. Ten early career scholars apply and extend the questions and approaches of these central essays in short reflections that apply these issues in new ways to other contexts (e.g., India, the United States, early Christianity) and topics (e.g., social issues in politics, religion vs. non-religion, nationalism, scholars in public discourse). The volume concludes with a substantive Afterword that broadens from these specific current events to present an extended analysis of the fabrication of difference and the ways recognizing these processes should influence our scholarship and our engagement with public discourse."--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Myths of the French Republic / Mayanthi L. Fernando; title: Concerning voices: thinking with Fernando about bigotry and silence / Damon T. Berry; title: The power of persecution and martyrdom in modern discourse / Tara Baldrick-Morrone; title: The myths of France, periodization, and sovereign power / Stephanie Frank; title: Strategies of "othering" in contemporary India / Vincent E. Burgess; title: Clashing allegiances: the practicality of constructing national identity / Andie Alexander; title: ISIS: what's a poor religionist to do? / Aaron W. Hughes; title: Give me liberty or give me pizza: (or, how the public transcript fabricates difference) / Thomas J. Whitley; title: Racialized religion in America: terrorist bodies, turbans, and mistaken identity / Martha Smith Roberts; title: Why do we still wear the shoe that bites? / Deeksha Sivakumar; title: Rightly disdained by intelligent persons: magic, superstition, and the disenchantment of the world / Ian Alexander Cuthbertson; title: Secular publics and the study of religion: a few considerations for critical scholars; title: Charles Mccrary; title: What difference does it make? critical theory and public discourse / Steven W. Ramey.