![[Professor Simpson in Paris]](images/paris.jpg)
Professor Caroline Simpson describes her first Exploration Seminar, Representing Race at Cultural Sites: Paris in the 21st Century to be offered this summer:
“In the context of a rich colonial history, the French have consistently proposed that racial difference is irrelevant to inclusion and participation in the republic. Yet, the waves of protests and controversies in the ethnic or immigrant suburbs of Paris in the last few years would seem to challenge that claim. Immigrant communities mostly point to a long and enduring culture of racism in the republic that they say remains unacknowledged. I want to explore how Parisians are dealing with this challenge. Paris has key cultural places—the Louvre, the Branly, and the new museum on immigration—which, as symbols of national culture, have become sites for recent state efforts to revise cultural practices of representation impacting immigrants or racial minorities. By focusing on these museum spaces, we can limit the purview of our considerations and examine specific, stated cultural strategies and the evaluation of those strategies. I am looking forward to exploring the city with students, chatting about their ideas, and introducing them to the richness and contradictions of Paris.”
