Women, Algeria, Torture, Foucault: Advancing the Anticolonial Sociology of Marnia Lazreg

Conference held at the The Graduate Center of the City University of New York & Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College

September 25-26, 2025

For more information and to register, please visit https://marnialazreg.work/

Marnia Lazreg was a pathbreaking sociologist who made important contributions to a wide variety of fields, including the study of women, torture, colonialism, Islam, Foucault, international development, and her native Algeria. Much of this work was informed by an abiding belief in the emancipatory potential of a universalistic conception of the human—an approach that bucked prevailing academic trends and inspired a highly original oeuvre rich in critical perspectives. We convene in honor of this unique liberatory voice, who was taken from us in 2024.

The conference will bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines and locales to build upon ideas that Marnia expounded in five of her books.