Crystal Fleming

Biography

On September 10, Crystal Fleming, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Stony Brook University, joined a panel discussion with Arun Venugopal, WNYC, and 2012 Immigration Journalism Award winner Elise Vincent, to discuss race and influence in France and the United States, as explored in Vincent’s May 2014 Le Monde feature,“The New Black Elite.” Prior to the panel discussion, Fleming shared some of her recent work with the Foundation.

Crystal Fleming is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at Stony Brook University and was the faculty adviser to Stony Brook’s Black Women’s Association from 2012-2014. She teaches classes on contemporary and classical theory; the sociology of slavery, race, and ethnicity; and qualitative data analysis. Fleming has degrees in sociology and French from Wellesley College and completed her Ph.D. at Harvard University. She also was a visiting fellow at the Institut d’études politiques (Sciences Po) in Paris. Fleming’s work explores the cultural sociology of racism, including: the logics people use to think about past and present racial inequality, the norms that shape people’s responses to racism, and the limits of colorblind universalism. She is currently completing her first book Resurrecting Slavery: Race and Remembrance in Colorblind France.

Interview

Can you introduce yourself and the book you’re working on?

Could you speak on the realities and consequences of the French treatment or non-treatment of race?

Do you feel that in France there is a disconnect between the French administration government’s approach to race and reality?