Women, Algeria, Torture, Foucault:

Advancing the Anticolonial Sociology of

Marnia Lazreg

September 25-26, 2025

Locations:
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York & Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College

New York City

Introduction

Marnia Lazreg was a pathbreaking sociologist who made important contributions to a wide variety of fields, including the study of women, torture, colonialism, Islam, Foucault, international development, and her native Algeria. Much of this work was informed by an abiding belief in the emancipatory potential of a universalistic conception of the human—an approach that bucked prevailing academic trends and inspired a highly original oeuvre rich in critical perspectives. We convene in honor of this unique liberatory voice, who was taken from us in 2024.

The conference will bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines and locales to build upon ideas that Marnia expounded in five of her books.  

Program

Day One

Thursday, September 25, 2025

CUNY Graduate Center, Skylight Room
365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016

2pm

Check-in desk for speakers and in-person attendees opens (all conference participants must register in advance online here)

2:30-3:30pm

Opening Remarks

Ramsi Woodcock, University of Kentucky

Erica Chito-Childs, Hunter College, CUNY (Interim Dean, Arts & Sciences)

and others 

3:30-4pm

Coffee Break

4-5:30pm

The Eloquence of Silence:
Algerian Women in Question
(1994)

Panel 1: Feminism and Difference

On the Eloquence “?” of Silence of Algerian Women in Kamel Daoud’s Houris

Emna Sfaihi, University of Debrecen, Hungary

Beyond Power, Gender, and the Non-Western Body: The Dialogic Constructions of Womanhood in Colonial and Postcolonial Algeria

Yousef Barahmeh, Isra University, Jordan & Imene Medfouni, Middle East University, Jordan

The Importance of Studying Colonialism and its Heritage

Tuomo Melasuo, University of Tampere, Finland

Additional papers for this panel to be announced.

6pm

Reception

Day Two

Friday, September 26, 2025

Roosevelt House
47-49 E 65th St, New York, NY 10065

9am-10:30am

Foucault’s Orient:
The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, From Tunisia to Japan
(2017)

Panel 2: Foucault and Non-Western Thought / Torture & Colonialism I

Foucault and Non-Western Thought

Decolonial Dialogue: Foucault, Lazreg, Khatibi, Djait

Jakob Krais, University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Germany

Foucault and Non-Western Thought

Requestioning the Veil: Outlining the Anti-Colonial Philosophy of Marnia Lazreg through the Edinburgh School’s Afro-Decolonial Thought

Takeshi Morisato, University of Edinburgh, UK

Foucault and Non-Western Thought

Islamic or Political Spirituality?

Sajjad Lohi, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

Torture & Colonialism I

Torture and Counter-Revolution in Algeria during French Colonization: 1954-1962

Youcef Hamitouche, University of Algiers 3, Algeria

Torture & Colonialism I

French Colonial Narratives on Torture and Counter-Narratives Developed by Marnia Lazreg

Mahendra Rana, Nehru University, India

10:30-11am

Coffee Break

11-12:30pm

Torture and the Twilight of Empire:
From Algiers to Baghdad
(2008)

Panel 3: Torture & Colonialism II

Marnia Lazreg and the Twilight of Modern Warfare

Bernard Harcourt, Columbia University, USA

Torture and the Twilight of Humanitarianism: From Algiers to Guantanamo

Lisa Hajjar, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Conceptual Wars over ‘Trauma’ and the Politics of Meaning

Suad Joseph, University of California, Davis, USA

TBA

Nigel Gibson, Emerson College, USA

Human Rights in the Risk Society: An Analysis of the New Forms of Torture under Neoliberalism

Erica Greco, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.

12:30-1:30pm

Lunch Break

1:30-3pm

Questioning the Veil:
Open Letters to Muslim Women
(2011)

Panel 4: The Veil in Question

Empire, Native Collaborators, and the Veil: How Social Media Enables Astroturf Movements

Deepa Kumar & Bahareh Badiei, Rutgers University, USA

The Dual Veil: Decolonial Feminist Reflections on Islamisation and Americanisation of Algerian Women

Khaoula Belghit, University of Brighton, UK

The Hijab Is a Multidimensional Social Practice: The Ethical Dimension

Tasneem Alsayyed Ahmad, University Canada West, Canada

“Who the Fuck Are You?”: Violated Bodies, Viral Images, & Visual Ethics in the ‘Shameless’ Body Politics of Ahou Daryaei & Gisele Pelicot

Karina Eileraas Karakus, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

3-3:30pm

Coffee Break

3:30-5pm

Islamic Feminism and the Discourse of Post-Liberation:
The Cultural Turn in Algeria
(2021)

Panel 5: Assessing Islamic Feminism from an Anticolonial Perspective

Marnia Lazreg: Rethinking Differences in Order to Have a Voice — A Critique of Islamic Feminism and Perspectives for Reflection and Action on Feminism in Algeria

Nouria Benghabirit-Remaoun & Belkacem Benzenine, CRASC, Algeria

Beyond the “Religion Paradigm” and the Cultural Turn: Islam, Colonialism, and Women’s Care Work Between Subversion and Consolidation

Kirsten Wesselhoeft & Aliza M. Sadiq, Vassar College, USA

The Cultural Turn in Afghan Women’s Resistance Against Taliban Restrictions

Neela Hassan, University of Waterloo, Canada

Between Belief and Emancipation: The Enigma of Resistance to Islamic Feminism among Kerala’s Muslim Community

Perumthodi Shabna, Indian Institute of Management, India

Islamic Feminism in Jordan: Negotiating Global and Local Feminist Voices

Yousef Barameh, Isra University, Jordan

7pm

Conference Dinner (off site)

Registration

Please register to attend the conference either in person on online here.

Sponsors

Sociology Department
Human Rights Program
Sociology Department

Lead Organizer: Ramsi Woodcock, University of Kentucky

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Pablo Picasso, Les femmes d’Alger (Women of Algiers), Variation N (1955), which Marnia chose as cover image for The Eloquence of Silence, her critical response to the construction of Algerian women by Western scholars.

“My work reflects my horror of dogma, be it theoretical, methodological or political.”

Marnia Lazreg