Jeanette S. Jouili | Syracuse University (original) (raw)

Books by Jeanette S. Jouili

The visible increase in religious practice among young European-born Muslims has provoked public ... more The visible increase in religious practice among young European-born Muslims has provoked public anxiety. New government regulations seek not only to restrict Islamic practices within the public sphere, but also to shape Muslims', and especially women's, personal conduct. Pious Practice and Secular Constraints chronicles the everyday ethical struggles of women active in orthodox and socially conservative Islamic revival circles as they are torn between their quest for a pious lifestyle and their aspirations to counter negative representations of Muslims within the mainstream society.

Jeanette S. Jouili conducted fieldwork in France and Germany to investigate how pious Muslim women grapple with religious expression: for example, when to wear a headscarf, where to pray throughout the day, and how to maintain modest interactions between men and women. Her analysis stresses the various ethical dilemmas the women confronted in negotiating these religious duties within a secular public sphere. In conversation with Islamic and Western thinkers, Jouili teases out the important ethical-political implications of these struggles, ultimately arguing that Muslim moral agency, surprisingly reinvigorated rather than hampered by the increasingly hostile climate in Europe, encourages us to think about the contribution of non-secular civic virtues for shaping a pluralist Europe.

Papers by Jeanette S. Jouili

American Ethnologist, 2017

Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas, 2021

Over the past fifteen years, hip-hop has grown slowly but steadily within the British Islamic cul... more Over the past fifteen years, hip-hop has grown slowly but steadily within the British Islamic cultural sphere, a trend spearheaded mainly by British Muslims of African descent. In a religious scene that, when it came to music, was long dominated by Islamic devotional music (nasheed), hip-hop has strug gled with a legitimacy prob lem. For Muslim hip-hop artists, however, this music genre justifies itself for its significant contribution to forging a Black Muslim identity and the specific ethical commitments that are germane to this proj ect. For the artists in question, hip-hop's potential Islamic legitimacy is rooted in the ethics and politics of "original" hip-hop (connected to contesting racism and neo co lo nial ism and promoting Black consciousness). It is this commitment that Muslim hip-hop artists generally seek to uphold. Much has been written about the ethicopo liti cal commitments of "Muslim" hip-hop, especially in the United States but also in parts of western Eu rope, Africa, and the Middle East. 1 However, little attention has been paid to another dimension of Muslim hip-hop that is central to the artists' efforts to authenticate hip-hop as Islamicthe par tic u lar aesthetic styles that Muslim hip-hop culture has adopted and that are intrinsically linked to the ethics of hip-hop. 2 In this essay I attend to the central role of the body within the ethics and aesthetics of Islamic hip-hop as conceived by Afro-descendant British Muslim hip-hop prac ti tion ers. 3 I use the term Islamic hip-hop-a term that is endorsed by some prac ti tion ers but rejected or used only with caution by others-to talk about hip-hop music made by Muslim performers who regularly perform 8. Embodying Black Islam: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Afro-Diasporic Muslim Hip-Hop in Britain jeanette s. jouili

Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas, 2021

Melodically rocking Sufi bodies remember God on a former plantation in South Carolina, reconnecti... more Melodically rocking Sufi bodies remember God on a former plantation in South Carolina, reconnecting with ancestors and an imagined homeland. Dancers in Martinique use the sound of the bèlè drum to achieve emotional transcendence and resist alienation caused by centuries of French assimilation. Devotees of Mama Tchamba in Togo use shuffling steps, dress, and ritual to placate the spirits of formerly enslaved people from the North whom their own ancestors bought and sold. All of these examples foreground one thing: the role of the body specifically in the shaping, transmitting, and remaking of African and African diasporic religions and religious communities. Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas is an edited volume that critically examines the role of the body as a source of religiously motivated social action for people of African descent across the geographic regions of the African continent, the Ca rib bean and Latin Amer i ca, the American South, and Eu rope. From a variety of religious contexts-from Pentecostalism in Ghana and Brazil to Ifá divination in Trinidad to Islam in South Carolina, Nigeria, and London-the contributors investigate the complex intersections between the body, religious expression, and the construction and negotiation of par tic ular social relationships and collective identities. A series of case studies explore how embodied practices-such as possession and spirit-induced trembling, wrestling in pursuit of deliverance, ritual dance, and gestures and postures of piety-can inform notions of sexual citizenship, challenge secular definitions of the nation, or promote transatlantic connections as well as local and ethnic Introduction: Embodiment and Relationality in Religions of Africa and Its Diasporas yolanda covington-ward and jeanette s. jouili

In recent years, young pious Muslims in France have become increasingly active as arts practition... more In recent years, young pious Muslims in France have become increasingly active as arts practitioners, notably in the domain of music and performing arts. This engagement is often explained with the desire to offer the French Muslim community an alternative to the ubiquitous secular mass culture deemed detrimental to a pious subjectivity. Because the official structures of the Islamic revival movement have for a long time adopted quite a restrictive stance with regard to cultural production, but also due to Muslims' largely working class backgrounds in France, the young artists perceive their work in terms of educating the umma. In other words, they seek to develop a cultural or artistic sensibility that is nonetheless conducive to Islamic sensitivities. By examining three small performance art pieces produced by a young generation of pious Muslim artists from the Paris region, I hope to extend our understanding of Islamic sensory politics, as well as aesthetic and ethical practices, in a world where entertainment, leisure, and the culture industry are considered increasingly decisive for the sustainability of pious self-cultivation. [

Anthropological Quarterly, 2014

French Politics, Culture & Society, 2013

Feminist Review, 2011

This article addresses the complex reflections regarding gender relations expressed by women acti... more This article addresses the complex reflections regarding gender relations expressed by women active in the contemporary Islamic revival movements in Europe (especially France and Germany). Much recent research conducted among these groups aims to counter the rather negative accounts prevailing in public discourses on gender and Islam. This literature notably argues that women's conscious turn to Islam is not necessarily a reaffirmation of male domination, but that it constitutes a possibility for agency and empowerment. However, when faced with certain 'traditionalist' positions defended by these women, even this well-meaning literature seems precarious, left in a state of uncertainty. Taking this puzzlement as a point of departure, this contribution aims to think about the dilemmas involved in articulating a language for women's dignity and self-realization, which competes with dominant languages of equality, individual rights and autonomy. This project is rendered even more intricate by the fact that these pious Muslim women socialized in Europe have also been partly fashioned by the liberal discourses against which they want to position themselves.

This article discusses how religious Muslim women negotiate Islamic prayer and Islamic dress with... more This article discusses how religious Muslim women negotiate Islamic prayer and Islamic dress within French and German public spheres where Islamic connoted bodily practices are not easily accommodated. While these women perceive their practice first and foremost in terms of devotional practices with the objective to fashion and strengthen a pious self, within the context of these secular public spheres they also get entangled in (re-)signification processes. In order to grasp these specific shifts in the religious practices in question, the article discusses approaches that emphasise the role of corporeality in the shaping of religious subjects with those conducted in the field of performance theory.

Book Reviews by Jeanette S. Jouili

Interviews by Jeanette S. Jouili

Talks by Jeanette S. Jouili

CSSH in Dialogue, 2019

A Conversation with Jeanette Jouili, Mucahit Bilici, Esra Özyürek, and Kabir Tambar about Islam a... more A Conversation with Jeanette Jouili, Mucahit Bilici, Esra Özyürek, and Kabir Tambar about Islam and the Culture/Religion Binary

Articles by Jeanette S. Jouili

Performance, Religion, and Spirituality, 2019

Performance, Religion and Spirituality’s second forum turns our focus to the ways in which rap an... more Performance, Religion and Spirituality’s second forum turns our focus to the ways in which rap and hip hop—as well as the hybrid musical and performance forms which draw on them— have, in recent decades, become important means of asserting, performing, and negotiating religious identity and practice. These forms have spread far beyond their origin in the African American community, and now are forces within the religious and cultural life of nations around the world. They represent both inroads of a globally recognized brand with commercial power and a critical assertion of local and ndividual identities. As well as simply being a great deal of fun, they can serve as a challenge to social structures, including those grounded in religion, and can offer up a form of personal and ironic form of critique that other forms cannot. For this forum, we have brought together four scholars of global hip hop to discuss the critical, political and aesthetic potential the form holds for contemporary religious life worldwide. I asked each scholar to begin with a short position statement on their own research and the relevance of hip hop for religion in the context of their particular research field (Senegal, Morocco, the UK, and the US). The five of us then read each other’s contributions and met (via videoconferencing) to discuss and debate what we had read. The resulting conversation, lightly edited for clarity, is included here. All PRS forums are intended as an invitation for further dialogue, and here the subject matter makes that invitation all the more urgent.

The visible increase in religious practice among young European-born Muslims has provoked public ... more The visible increase in religious practice among young European-born Muslims has provoked public anxiety. New government regulations seek not only to restrict Islamic practices within the public sphere, but also to shape Muslims', and especially women's, personal conduct. Pious Practice and Secular Constraints chronicles the everyday ethical struggles of women active in orthodox and socially conservative Islamic revival circles as they are torn between their quest for a pious lifestyle and their aspirations to counter negative representations of Muslims within the mainstream society.

Jeanette S. Jouili conducted fieldwork in France and Germany to investigate how pious Muslim women grapple with religious expression: for example, when to wear a headscarf, where to pray throughout the day, and how to maintain modest interactions between men and women. Her analysis stresses the various ethical dilemmas the women confronted in negotiating these religious duties within a secular public sphere. In conversation with Islamic and Western thinkers, Jouili teases out the important ethical-political implications of these struggles, ultimately arguing that Muslim moral agency, surprisingly reinvigorated rather than hampered by the increasingly hostile climate in Europe, encourages us to think about the contribution of non-secular civic virtues for shaping a pluralist Europe.

American Ethnologist, 2017

Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas, 2021

Over the past fifteen years, hip-hop has grown slowly but steadily within the British Islamic cul... more Over the past fifteen years, hip-hop has grown slowly but steadily within the British Islamic cultural sphere, a trend spearheaded mainly by British Muslims of African descent. In a religious scene that, when it came to music, was long dominated by Islamic devotional music (nasheed), hip-hop has strug gled with a legitimacy prob lem. For Muslim hip-hop artists, however, this music genre justifies itself for its significant contribution to forging a Black Muslim identity and the specific ethical commitments that are germane to this proj ect. For the artists in question, hip-hop's potential Islamic legitimacy is rooted in the ethics and politics of "original" hip-hop (connected to contesting racism and neo co lo nial ism and promoting Black consciousness). It is this commitment that Muslim hip-hop artists generally seek to uphold. Much has been written about the ethicopo liti cal commitments of "Muslim" hip-hop, especially in the United States but also in parts of western Eu rope, Africa, and the Middle East. 1 However, little attention has been paid to another dimension of Muslim hip-hop that is central to the artists' efforts to authenticate hip-hop as Islamicthe par tic u lar aesthetic styles that Muslim hip-hop culture has adopted and that are intrinsically linked to the ethics of hip-hop. 2 In this essay I attend to the central role of the body within the ethics and aesthetics of Islamic hip-hop as conceived by Afro-descendant British Muslim hip-hop prac ti tion ers. 3 I use the term Islamic hip-hop-a term that is endorsed by some prac ti tion ers but rejected or used only with caution by others-to talk about hip-hop music made by Muslim performers who regularly perform 8. Embodying Black Islam: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Afro-Diasporic Muslim Hip-Hop in Britain jeanette s. jouili

Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas, 2021

Melodically rocking Sufi bodies remember God on a former plantation in South Carolina, reconnecti... more Melodically rocking Sufi bodies remember God on a former plantation in South Carolina, reconnecting with ancestors and an imagined homeland. Dancers in Martinique use the sound of the bèlè drum to achieve emotional transcendence and resist alienation caused by centuries of French assimilation. Devotees of Mama Tchamba in Togo use shuffling steps, dress, and ritual to placate the spirits of formerly enslaved people from the North whom their own ancestors bought and sold. All of these examples foreground one thing: the role of the body specifically in the shaping, transmitting, and remaking of African and African diasporic religions and religious communities. Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas is an edited volume that critically examines the role of the body as a source of religiously motivated social action for people of African descent across the geographic regions of the African continent, the Ca rib bean and Latin Amer i ca, the American South, and Eu rope. From a variety of religious contexts-from Pentecostalism in Ghana and Brazil to Ifá divination in Trinidad to Islam in South Carolina, Nigeria, and London-the contributors investigate the complex intersections between the body, religious expression, and the construction and negotiation of par tic ular social relationships and collective identities. A series of case studies explore how embodied practices-such as possession and spirit-induced trembling, wrestling in pursuit of deliverance, ritual dance, and gestures and postures of piety-can inform notions of sexual citizenship, challenge secular definitions of the nation, or promote transatlantic connections as well as local and ethnic Introduction: Embodiment and Relationality in Religions of Africa and Its Diasporas yolanda covington-ward and jeanette s. jouili

In recent years, young pious Muslims in France have become increasingly active as arts practition... more In recent years, young pious Muslims in France have become increasingly active as arts practitioners, notably in the domain of music and performing arts. This engagement is often explained with the desire to offer the French Muslim community an alternative to the ubiquitous secular mass culture deemed detrimental to a pious subjectivity. Because the official structures of the Islamic revival movement have for a long time adopted quite a restrictive stance with regard to cultural production, but also due to Muslims' largely working class backgrounds in France, the young artists perceive their work in terms of educating the umma. In other words, they seek to develop a cultural or artistic sensibility that is nonetheless conducive to Islamic sensitivities. By examining three small performance art pieces produced by a young generation of pious Muslim artists from the Paris region, I hope to extend our understanding of Islamic sensory politics, as well as aesthetic and ethical practices, in a world where entertainment, leisure, and the culture industry are considered increasingly decisive for the sustainability of pious self-cultivation. [

Anthropological Quarterly, 2014

French Politics, Culture & Society, 2013

Feminist Review, 2011

This article addresses the complex reflections regarding gender relations expressed by women acti... more This article addresses the complex reflections regarding gender relations expressed by women active in the contemporary Islamic revival movements in Europe (especially France and Germany). Much recent research conducted among these groups aims to counter the rather negative accounts prevailing in public discourses on gender and Islam. This literature notably argues that women's conscious turn to Islam is not necessarily a reaffirmation of male domination, but that it constitutes a possibility for agency and empowerment. However, when faced with certain 'traditionalist' positions defended by these women, even this well-meaning literature seems precarious, left in a state of uncertainty. Taking this puzzlement as a point of departure, this contribution aims to think about the dilemmas involved in articulating a language for women's dignity and self-realization, which competes with dominant languages of equality, individual rights and autonomy. This project is rendered even more intricate by the fact that these pious Muslim women socialized in Europe have also been partly fashioned by the liberal discourses against which they want to position themselves.

This article discusses how religious Muslim women negotiate Islamic prayer and Islamic dress with... more This article discusses how religious Muslim women negotiate Islamic prayer and Islamic dress within French and German public spheres where Islamic connoted bodily practices are not easily accommodated. While these women perceive their practice first and foremost in terms of devotional practices with the objective to fashion and strengthen a pious self, within the context of these secular public spheres they also get entangled in (re-)signification processes. In order to grasp these specific shifts in the religious practices in question, the article discusses approaches that emphasise the role of corporeality in the shaping of religious subjects with those conducted in the field of performance theory.

CSSH in Dialogue, 2019

A Conversation with Jeanette Jouili, Mucahit Bilici, Esra Özyürek, and Kabir Tambar about Islam a... more A Conversation with Jeanette Jouili, Mucahit Bilici, Esra Özyürek, and Kabir Tambar about Islam and the Culture/Religion Binary

Performance, Religion, and Spirituality, 2019

Performance, Religion and Spirituality’s second forum turns our focus to the ways in which rap an... more Performance, Religion and Spirituality’s second forum turns our focus to the ways in which rap and hip hop—as well as the hybrid musical and performance forms which draw on them— have, in recent decades, become important means of asserting, performing, and negotiating religious identity and practice. These forms have spread far beyond their origin in the African American community, and now are forces within the religious and cultural life of nations around the world. They represent both inroads of a globally recognized brand with commercial power and a critical assertion of local and ndividual identities. As well as simply being a great deal of fun, they can serve as a challenge to social structures, including those grounded in religion, and can offer up a form of personal and ironic form of critique that other forms cannot. For this forum, we have brought together four scholars of global hip hop to discuss the critical, political and aesthetic potential the form holds for contemporary religious life worldwide. I asked each scholar to begin with a short position statement on their own research and the relevance of hip hop for religion in the context of their particular research field (Senegal, Morocco, the UK, and the US). The five of us then read each other’s contributions and met (via videoconferencing) to discuss and debate what we had read. The resulting conversation, lightly edited for clarity, is included here. All PRS forums are intended as an invitation for further dialogue, and here the subject matter makes that invitation all the more urgent.