Thursday, October 27
Azouz Begag and Alec Hargreaves, “Contemporary France, Changing France”
Whitley Auditorium, 6 p.m.
Begag and Hargreaves will discuss identity crises and the place of Islam in France, the politicization of immigration, Marine Le Pen’s rising electoral prospects and the burqa ban in multicultural France.
The event was made possible by a grant from Elon University’s Fund for Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, as well as generous support from the Department of Foreign Languages and the Department of Religious Studies at Elon University, the Winthrop-King Institute for French and Francophone Studies at Florida State University, and the Center for French and Francophone Studies at Duke University.
Azouz Begag is a French writer, politician and researcher in economics and sociology at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. Author of texts such as Ethnicity and Equality: France in the Balance, Begag has written approximately 20 books for adults and children, as well as the script of the French movie Camping à la ferme (“Camping at the farm”), where he exposes his vision multicultural France. Begag formerly served as minister for equal opportunities under Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin during Chirac’s presidency, the first ethnically Algerian French citizen to hold a ministerial post in the French government. His parents and older siblings immigrated to France from Algeria in the 50’s. He was born in France in 1957 and grew up in an Algerian shantytown on the outskirts of Lyon.
Alec Hargreaves is Ada Belle Winthrop-King Professor of French and Director of the Winthrop-King Institute for Contemporary French and Francophone Studies at Florida State University. A specialist on political, cultural and media aspects of post-colonial minorities in France, he is the author and editor of numerous publications including Voices from the North African Immigrant Community in France: Immigration and Identity in Beur Fiction, Immigration, ‘Race’ and Ethnicity in Contemporary France, and Racism, Ethnicity and Politics in Contemporary Europe. In 2003, the French government honored him by naming him a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques, and in June 2006 he was awarded France’s highest national honor the Légion d’honneur.