Jennifer Selby
Professor
A5029
Department of Religion and Culture, Arts and Administration Building
91亚色 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檚); 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檚 Nexus Centre for research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Broadly, her work examines contemporary secular politics in Canadian, Qu茅b茅cois and French contexts. Her most recent book, (UNC Press, 2025), considers the emotional, affective, and embodied nature of secularism, drawing on transnational fieldwork in Algeria, France and Qu茅bec and secularism studies theory. She currently directs a SSHRC-funded research project, / . 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, 91亚色 Press).
Jennifer A. Selby. 2025. Secular Sensibilities: Algerian Marriage and Migration to France and Qu茅bec ( series, University of North Carolina Press).
Am茅lie 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, Am茅lie 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, Am茅lie Barras and JA Selby. 2024. Quebecois 尝补茂肠颈迟茅 and its Canadian Multicultural Other in the Debates Surrounding Law 21. CanadianJournal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Soci茅t茅, 121. .
Jennifer A. Selby and Rehan Sayeed. 2023. 淩eligious authorities in the digital age: The case of Muslims in Canada. Contemporary Islam 17: 467-488,
Jennifer A. Selby and Sobia Shaikh. 2023. 淲ait, 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. 诲橦补别苍别苍蝉, Brill, 211-228.
Jennifer A. Selby. 2022. 湗There is No Place for the State in the Bedrooms of the Nation or The Case of Bill 21: A Response to Goodwin檚 Gender/Religion Lens in . Ed. RebekkaKing. Equinox, 162-175.
Jennifer A. Selby. 2022. 淩omance and the Male Secular Body: The Case of Algerian Men in France and Qu茅bec, The Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 90:1 (March): 248- 269,
Jennifer A. Selby, Am茅lie Barras and L.G.Beaman. 2021. 淲ho are Muslims in Canada? Analysis of the Qualitative Literature 1997-2017, in . Eds. Am茅lie Barras, Jennifer Selby, and Melanie Adrian, University of Toronto Press, 91-119.
Jennifer A. Selby and Cory Funk. 2020. Hashtagging 楪ood Muslim Performances Online. (first author, with Cory Funk). Journal of Media and Religion. 19:2 35-45.
Jennifer A. Selby, Am茅lie Barras and Lori G. Beaman. 2020. 尝檃苍驳濒别 mort de la 芦 濒补茂肠颈迟茅 ouverte 禄 : Les processus de navigation et 苍茅驳辞肠颈补迟颈辞苍蝉 dans le 惫茅肠耻religieux au Canada.&苍产蝉辫;Social Compass 67:1 45-58.
Jennifer A. Selby. 2019. 淩equired 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, Am茅lie Barras and Lori G. Beaman. 2018. 淟e jeu des figures et ses 谤猫驳濒别蝉: le role des figures musulmanes masculines dans la vie quotidienne des musulmanes canadiennes.&苍产蝉辫;Revue Anthropologie et 厂辞肠颈茅迟茅蝉 42:2 (April) 155-182.
Jennifer A. Selby. 2018. 湗Secularism in the Ontario Sharia Debate. In The 厂丑补谤颈檃: History, Ethics and Law, Muslim Heritage Series. Ed. Amyn Sajoo. London: I.B. Tauris, 215-230.
Am茅lie Barras, Jennifer A. Selby and Lori G. Beaman. 2018. 淩ethinking Canadian Discourses of 楻easonable Accommodation.&苍产蝉辫;Social Inclusion [Special issue: Complex Religion, ed. Melissa J. Wilde] 6:2 162-172. DOI: 10.17645/si.v6i2.1443
Jennifer A. Selby. 2017. 淟e bled en banlieue: Le mariage musulman face 脿 濒櫭塼补迟蹿谤补苍莽补颈蝉.&苍产蝉辫;Ethnologie 蹿谤补苍莽补颈蝉e. Special Issue on 淚slam in France. (December) 4: 693-705.
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:
Jennifer A. Selby. 2016. 淢uslimness and Multiplicity in Qualitative Research and in Government Reports in Canada.&苍产蝉辫;Critical Research on Religion. 4:1 (April): 72-89.
Lori G. Beaman, Jennifer A. Selby and Am茅lie Barras. 2016. 淣o 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.
Am茅lie Barras, Jennifer A. Selby and Lori G. Beaman. 2016. 淚n/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.