About

In my research I am interested in thinking about the relationship between politics, religion, gender and law in and beyond Canada.

I have done that by exploring the legal mobilisation of religious actors at the national and international level. In my first book I document the work of activists fighting headscarf bans in France and Turkey Refashioning Secularisms in France and Turkey. The case of the headscarf ban. Routledge, 2014 (paperback, 2016). I am currently finishing another manuscript, where I explore the work of NGOs that identify as Christian at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, Switzerland. In that book I am particularly interested in documenting the extent to which these activists contribute and shape the direction of human rights discussions at the HRC, and the creation of new human rights standards internationally. More generally the book is also an exploration of the invisibility of Christian presence in human rights institutions and norms.

Over the last decade, I have also turned my gaze to Canada. In 2018, with Jennifer Selby (Memorial University) and Lori Beaman (University of Ottawa) we published Beyond Accommodation. Everyday Narratives of Muslims Canadian (UBC, 2018), where we critically evaluate the model of 'reasonable accommodation' referenced in the management of religion in Canada. We argue that it disempowers religious minorities, and we propose a more inclusive approach to negotiate difference drawing on interviews with Canadians Muslims. In 2022, with Jennifer Selby and Melanie Adrian (Carleton University), we co-edited Producing Islam (s) in Canada. On Knowledge, Positionality and Politics (University of Toronto Press), where contributors reflect on the type of knowledge that has been produced on Islam (s) and Muslims in Canada, and the areas that require further exploration. Most recently, I have started two new collaborative projects at the intersection of religion, race and law in Canada. One with Andrea Paras (Guelph University) on the politics of diversity in hospitals in the GTA, and one with Jennifer Selby that explores the ways in which the discourse of secularism travels in North-Atlantic Francophone societies.

I teach in the department of Social Science at York University in the Law and Society Program. I am also a member of the Socio-Legal Studies Graduate Program and the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies.