Mixed Intimacies in Postcolonial Europe
Race, Religion and Gender
Will be published approx. on 7. January 2027
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-350-59731-0 (ISBN)
Description
Offering detailed accounts of mixed relationships, this book explores how partners navigate and reshape their relations, identities, and social expectations in contemporary Europe. Using 'mixedness' as a context-dependent concept, this volume moves beyond traditional and binary understandings of 'interracial' or 'interfaith' couples, examining how 'mixedness' is lived and experienced within postcolonial, social, and legal frameworks. Chapters also explore how individuals in mixed relations occupy complex social positions based on different forms and grammars of difference.
Addressing a range of themes, including the impact of history and colonial legacies on present-day experiences of mixedness in Europe, this book explores the role of law in the regulation of mixedness, gender dynamics amongst mixed couples, and configurations of race, religion and ethnicity. It additionally brings forward the ways in which individuals in mixed relations navigate societal prejudices and norms, construct perceptions on formations of mixedness, as well as strategies for dealing with differences. Bringing together research from diverse disciplines such as anthropology, history, law, religious studies, and gender studies, this volume provides multifaceted perspectives on the challenges and opportunities faced in and mixed relationships.
Addressing a range of themes, including the impact of history and colonial legacies on present-day experiences of mixedness in Europe, this book explores the role of law in the regulation of mixedness, gender dynamics amongst mixed couples, and configurations of race, religion and ethnicity. It additionally brings forward the ways in which individuals in mixed relations navigate societal prejudices and norms, construct perceptions on formations of mixedness, as well as strategies for dealing with differences. Bringing together research from diverse disciplines such as anthropology, history, law, religious studies, and gender studies, this volume provides multifaceted perspectives on the challenges and opportunities faced in and mixed relationships.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-59731-0 (9781350597310)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Marianne Moyaert is full professor in the Research Unit Systematic Theology and the Study of Religions at KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research focuses on comparative theology, interreligious hermeneutics, and Jewish-Christian relations, with a special interest in the ritual dimensions of interreligious encounters. She is the editor-in-chief of the Currents of Encounter series and has held leadership roles in interfaith studies within the American Academy of Religion.
Lieke Schrijvers is a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Religion and Theology of VU Amsterdam, Netherlands. She is a cultural anthropologist specializing in the intersectional study of religion, gender, sexuality, and race. Her PhD dissertation resulted in the forthcoming book Conversion, Gender, Race. Schrijvers is the managing editor of Religion and Gender.
Deniz Aktas is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at VU Amsterdam, Netherlands and KU Leuven, Belgium. Through ethnographic work on Christian-Muslim couples in the Netherlands, he highlights how individuals respond to societal norms and tensions surrounding race, religion, and belonging, contributing to a deeper understanding of potential social change within Dutch society.
Nella van den Brandt is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research areas are religion, gender and race in Europe; arts, literature, media and culture; and the sociology and anthropology of religion. In February 2024, she published the monograph Religion, Gender and Race in Western European Literature and Culture: Thinking through Religious Transformation.
Lieke Schrijvers is a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Religion and Theology of VU Amsterdam, Netherlands. She is a cultural anthropologist specializing in the intersectional study of religion, gender, sexuality, and race. Her PhD dissertation resulted in the forthcoming book Conversion, Gender, Race. Schrijvers is the managing editor of Religion and Gender.
Deniz Aktas is a PhD candidate in Religious Studies at VU Amsterdam, Netherlands and KU Leuven, Belgium. Through ethnographic work on Christian-Muslim couples in the Netherlands, he highlights how individuals respond to societal norms and tensions surrounding race, religion, and belonging, contributing to a deeper understanding of potential social change within Dutch society.
Nella van den Brandt is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies of the KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research areas are religion, gender and race in Europe; arts, literature, media and culture; and the sociology and anthropology of religion. In February 2024, she published the monograph Religion, Gender and Race in Western European Literature and Culture: Thinking through Religious Transformation.
Content
Acknowledgments
List of Contributors
Introduction. Mixedness, Religion, and the Politics of Intimate Life in Postcolonial Europe, Marianne Moyaert (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Part I. Genealogies of Mixedness: Race, Religion and the Politics of Intimacy
1. Reframing Cultural Diversity: Towards a Theory of Identity Reconstruction in Mixedness, Francesco Cerchiaro (Radboud University, Netherlands)
2. Resistance, Race, Interracialized Relationships, Multiracialized Bodies and the Second World War in the Netherlands, Guno Jones (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Part II. Jewish-non-Jewish Families: Historical and Contemporary Practices
3. Jewish Identity and Antisemitism: Patrilineal Jews and Conditional Whiteness in Finland, Mercedesz Czimbalmos (AboAkademi University, Finland)
4. Narrating Mixedness: Oral Histories of Jewish-Catholic Couples in Occupied Poland, Magdalena Dziaczkowska (Lund University, Sweden)
5. Ritual (Non-)Participation amongst Nonreligious-Christian and Jewish-Christian Couples, Lieke L. Schrijvers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Part III. Muslim-Christian Relations: Religio-racialization and Transnational Belonging
6. Legal Navigation in the Global South: Institutional Recognition of Mixed-Status Unions, Hindering Absence, and Asserting Rights, Laura Odasso (University of Paris VIII, France)
7. From the Margins to the Centre? Shifting Dynamics of Mixedness Among Dutch and Flemish Muslim Couples Making Hijra to Morocco, Nina ter Laan (University of Cologne, Germany)
8. Navigating Mixedness, Negotiating Belonging: Race, Religion, Secularity, and Christian-Muslim Intimacies, Deniz Aktas (VU Amsterdam, Netherlands and KU Leuven, Belgium)
Part IV. Nonreligion, Gender, and Sexuality in Intimate Life
9. Women Leaving Religion: Negotiating Mixed Intimate Relationships, Nella van den Brandt (KU Leuven, Belgium)
10. Catholic Women and Non-Religious Partners in Flanders, Belgium: Navigating Challenges, Choices and Cultural Contexts, Eline Huygens (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Notes
Index
List of Contributors
Introduction. Mixedness, Religion, and the Politics of Intimate Life in Postcolonial Europe, Marianne Moyaert (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Part I. Genealogies of Mixedness: Race, Religion and the Politics of Intimacy
1. Reframing Cultural Diversity: Towards a Theory of Identity Reconstruction in Mixedness, Francesco Cerchiaro (Radboud University, Netherlands)
2. Resistance, Race, Interracialized Relationships, Multiracialized Bodies and the Second World War in the Netherlands, Guno Jones (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Part II. Jewish-non-Jewish Families: Historical and Contemporary Practices
3. Jewish Identity and Antisemitism: Patrilineal Jews and Conditional Whiteness in Finland, Mercedesz Czimbalmos (AboAkademi University, Finland)
4. Narrating Mixedness: Oral Histories of Jewish-Catholic Couples in Occupied Poland, Magdalena Dziaczkowska (Lund University, Sweden)
5. Ritual (Non-)Participation amongst Nonreligious-Christian and Jewish-Christian Couples, Lieke L. Schrijvers (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Part III. Muslim-Christian Relations: Religio-racialization and Transnational Belonging
6. Legal Navigation in the Global South: Institutional Recognition of Mixed-Status Unions, Hindering Absence, and Asserting Rights, Laura Odasso (University of Paris VIII, France)
7. From the Margins to the Centre? Shifting Dynamics of Mixedness Among Dutch and Flemish Muslim Couples Making Hijra to Morocco, Nina ter Laan (University of Cologne, Germany)
8. Navigating Mixedness, Negotiating Belonging: Race, Religion, Secularity, and Christian-Muslim Intimacies, Deniz Aktas (VU Amsterdam, Netherlands and KU Leuven, Belgium)
Part IV. Nonreligion, Gender, and Sexuality in Intimate Life
9. Women Leaving Religion: Negotiating Mixed Intimate Relationships, Nella van den Brandt (KU Leuven, Belgium)
10. Catholic Women and Non-Religious Partners in Flanders, Belgium: Navigating Challenges, Choices and Cultural Contexts, Eline Huygens (KU Leuven, Belgium)
Notes
Index