Candidate attacked
The attack was astounding in academia: on March 11, the Observatory of Decolonialism, a collective of academics who militate against the supposed “Islamo-leftist drifts” in higher education, published a text caricaturing the work of Nonna Mayer, research director at the CNRS, attached to the Center for European Studies and Comparative Politics of Sciences Po and candidate for the presidency of the National Foundation for Political Science ( FNSP) to replace Olivier Duhamel, who had to resign following charges of incest. According to the collective, Nonna Mayer, who “Gives scientific support to the notion of Islamophobia”, swould be a sympathizer of the Islamo-leftist theses. The board of directors of the French Political Science Association supported it on March 16, 2021, and underlined “The scientific rigor of the work that she has devoted for years to various forms of discrimination and prejudice”.
National Front specialist
Nonna Mayer, a leading figure in political sociology, is best known for her work on the FN vote. She notably directed with Pascal Perrineau, also candidate for the direction of the FNSP, The National Front exposed (Presses de Sciences Po, 1996), which deciphered the stages of the electoral establishment of the party. His most famous book, These French people who vote Le Pen (Flammarion, 2002) has become a benchmark for generations of political science students. Another large-scale survey, co-directed with Céline Braconnier: The Inaudibles (Les Presses de Sciences Po, 2015), on the relationship to politics of those we call “The precarious”. A work that marks her.
Recognized political scientist
If she regularly gives interviews to various media, Nonna Mayer, serious and discreet, strictly confines her interventions to her field of competence. The researcher, who has just celebrated her 73 years, is recognized in France and abroad for her pioneering work in the field of the sociology of electoral politics. She began to publish at the end of the 1970s. From her first book published, in 1986, The Boutique against the left (Presses de la FNSP), her work is noticed: Nonna Mayer explores the behavior and political choices of small traders.
Islamo-leftist?
With her colleague Vincent Tiberj, she is in charge of the racism barometer of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH). This is an indicator that measures the evolution of the French on issues of racism. Islamophobia, this is what Nonna Mayer said in The cross, November 14, 2020: ” This term (…) is commonly used in the social sciences to denote prejudices against Islam and Muslims. So I use it, as a researcher and without any ulterior motives. It does not mean that all criticism of Islam is prohibited, quite the contrary. “