Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
6-2025
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Anthropology
Advisor
Gary Wilder
Committee Members
Miriam Ticktin
Nathalie Etoke
Nacira Guénif-Souilamas
Subject Categories
Social and Cultural Anthropology
Keywords
France, colonialism, history, activism, counterpublics
Abstract
France’s colonial past, which the state has yet to officially recognize in its entirety, continues to fracture the country’s socio-political landscape. The dominant discourse frames attempts to grapple with colonialism as threats to the stability and cohesion of the Republic. Meanwhile, a growing decolonial movement perceives this history as the prism through which present-day inequalities must be understood and addressed, tying it to the state’s ongoing coloniality both in its “overseas territories” and “mainland” France. Colonial history has increasingly, since the early 2000s, become a battleground on which social, political, and cultural debates unfold in France, leading to the stigmatization and repression of anti-racist movements, academics, and other engaged actors.
In response to a growing demand for colonial history, particularly among young people, a variety of autonomous grassroots projects focused on transmitting this history through a critical lens have emerged in recent years. They center pedagogy, experiential learning, digital media, and self-organizing to challenge colonial imaginaries and shape a critical mass of politicized subjects conscious of the colonial roots of systemic racism occluded by the dominant discourse. This dissertation studies a constellation of these initiatives, and the public that forms around them, as an ecosystem. I examine the practices, narratives, and subjectivities of the actors involved in this ecosystem and trace its multiple materializations across France (with a focus on the cities of Paris, Lille, and Marseille), showing how it takes shape in the form of podcasts, walking city tours, YouTube channels, public discussions, Instagram pages, book talks, film screenings, protests, actions in public space, guidebooks, activist groups, and more. Examined collectively, these projects shed light on a new cultural phenomenon in contemporary France: creative attempts to take ownership of a silenced and regimented colonial history through non-traditional forms of knowledge production and circulation. By centering grassroots actors, this research highlights already-existing alternatives to France’s colonial imaginary, despite the country’s (well-documented) refusal to fully recognize its colonial past and present.
Recommended Citation
Leter, Deborah, "Challenging Colonial Imaginaries: History, Pedagogy, and Consciousness-Raising in Contemporary France" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6284
