This week we will examine the role played by the Republican concept of laïcité in French society, in particular the way in which laïcité has most recently come into conflict with a growing French Muslim population. We will examine how, since the 1980s, successive French governments have drawn on the concept of laïcité to question the presence of religious symbols in public places, in particular in schools. In the lecture, we will explore the development of legislaton banning religious symbols in public settings, before then exploring some of the on-going debates around the relevance of laïcité in modern France. In the seminars, we will investigate how laïcité relates to the wider themes of integration and immigration in France

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