About
Research
Adi Saleem Bharat is a scholar of modern and contemporary France. His research and teaching broadly focus on the intersection of race and religion (or religion as race), particularly in relation to Jews and Muslims. His work is interdisciplinary, intersecting with cultural studies, media studies, literary studies, and critical discourse analysis. He is currently working on a manuscript tentatively titled Beyond Jews and Muslims, which examines genealogies of antisemitism and Islamophobia in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. He is also the editor of a forthcoming book titled Queer Jews, Queer Muslims: Race, Religion, and Representation (Wayne State University Press).
He is also working on a second project exploring the politics of conversion to and apostasy from Islam. In a contemporary French (and Western) context where Islam is increasingly politicized, studying the related phenomena of apostasy and conversion may illuminate the selective ways in which diverse media and political actors often weaponize Islam and (ex-)Muslims. As a preliminary form of inquiry into this topic, he co-edited and contributed to a special issue of Contemporary French Civilization (2022) titled "Leaving Islam in France and North Africa: Politics, Representation and Lived Experience."
Bharat is also the co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Language and Sexuality (2021) on the topic of Pink Dot, an LGBT movement that began in Singapore in 2009.
Selected Publications
"Race, Religion, and Coloniality: ex-Muslim ‘coming-out’ narratives in France," Leaving Islam in France and North Africa: Politics, Representation and Lived Experience [special issue]. Contemporary French Civilization, 47(2), 2022.
"Pink Dot: Ten Years On," Journal of Language and Sexuality, 10(2), 2021, pp. 97–105. Co-authors: Pavan Mano & Robert Phillips.
"Paradoxes and limitations in enacting Jewish-Muslim dialogue in contemporary France: case studies of interreligious and intercultural dialogue initiatives," Modern & Contemporary France, 29(4), 2021, pp. 379–397.
"Jews and Muslims in Contemporary French Newspaper Discourse (2000-2017)," French Cultural Studies, 32(1), 2021, pp. 26–41.
"The Politics of Nostalgia and Pessimism: Jewish-Muslim Relations in Thierry Cohen's Avant la haine," Francosphères, 9(2), 2020, 167–192.
"Shalom alikoum! Challenging the conflictual model of Jewish-Muslim relations in France through stand-up comedy," in Jewish-Muslim Interactions: Performing Cultures Between North Africa and France, edited by Samuel Sami Everett & Rebekah Vince. Francophone Postcolonial Studies Series, Liverpool University Press, 2020, pp. 273–292.
Recent Graduate Seminars
Postcolonialism and Decoloniality
Recent Undergraduate Courses
Fanon
Antisemitism and Islamophobia
Race, Humor, and Politics in France
Jews and Muslims in Modern and Contemporary France
Race, Religion, and Coloniality
Affiliations
- Faculty Associate, Global Islamic Studies Center
- Faculty Associate, Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies
- Faculty Associate, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
- Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester
- Co-founder and Coordinator, Jewish-Muslim Research Network
