About our guests
Rachid Benzine
Rachid Benzine is a political scientist and specialist in Islamic studies. He is also a novelist and playwright. His latest novel, The Man Who Read Books, is currently being translated into over twenty languages.
Born in Morocco, he moved to France at the age of seven. Deeply committed to intercultural and interfaith dialogue, he has notably published several works in the form of conversations: with Father Christian Delorme, Nous avons tant de choses à nous dire (Albin Michel, 1998) and La République, l'Église et l'Islam: une révolution française (Bayard, 2016); and with Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, Des mille et une façons d’être juif ou musulman (Seuil, 2017).
Dr Joseph Ford
Dr Joseph Ford is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies (ILCS) and Associate Dean at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study. He specialises in contemporary French and Francophone Literature and Culture, with specific interests in North Africa. He has also written on theories and discourses of world and comparative literature in relation to the wider Francosphere, on memory and responsibility in Europe, and on multilingualism and education in the UK.
