To Be or Not to Be Charlie: Nationalism and ethnic relations in public discourses

CEREN RESEARCH SEMINAR April 19th 2016, at 16:15 - 18:00

Gwenaëlle Bauvois is a PhD (Sociology, University of Eastern Finland) and a Postdoctoral Researcher at CEREN. The response to the Charlie Hebdo events was at first deeply emotional and unified, unanimously defending the values of democracy, freedom of speech and fraternity. However, the public debate soon polarised itself between ‘the ones who are Charlie’ and ‘the ones who are not’ with an unprecedented surge of anti-Islam, anti-immigrant and neo-nationalist discourses challenging the overall ethnic relations in France.

The focus of Gwenaëlle Bauvois’s postdoctoral research is on the processes through which these xenophobic and Islamophobic discourses have operated a shift from relatively marginal ‘sphericules’ to the wider public sphere in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo and November 2015 Paris attacks, especially in the debate arena provided by social media.

Tuesday, April 19th 2016, at 16:15 - 18:00