Sara Ahmed

In Complaint! Sara Ahmed examines what we can learn about power from those who complain about abuses of power. Drawing on oral and written testimonies from academics and students who have made complaints about harassment, bullying, and unequal working conditions at universities, Ahmed explores the gap between what is supposed to happen when complaints are made and what actually happens. To make complaints within institutions is to learn how they work and for whom they work: complaint as feminist pedagogy. Ahmed explores how complaints are made behind closed doors and how doors are often closed on those who complain. To open these doors---to get complaints through, keep them going, or keep them alive---Ahmed emphasizes, requires forming new kinds of collectives. This book offers a systematic analysis of the methods used to stop complaints and a powerful and poetic meditation on what complaints can be used to do. Following a long lineage of Black feminist and feminist of color critiques of the university, Ahmed delivers a timely consideration of how institutional change becomes possible and why it is necessary.

Differences That Matter challenges theories of the relationship between feminism and postmodernism that ask "is/should feminism be modern or postmodern?" Pointing out how postmodernism has been allowed to dictate feminist debates, Sara Ahmed argues instead that feminism must itself ask questions of postmodernism; that feminist theorists speak (back) to postmodernism rather than simply speak on (their relationship to) it. This "speaking back" involves a refusal to position postmodernism as a generalizable condition of the world, using close readings of postmodern constructions of rights, ethics, "woman," subjectivity, authorship and film.

En esta obra pionera, Fenomenología Queer, Sara Ahmed demuestra que los estudios queer pueden servirse de la fenomenología y hacerlo de forma productiva. Centrándose en la «orientación» para referirse también a la «orientación sexual», se pregunta qué significa que la sexualidad esté orientada en la dirección del deseo, si se trata de cómo habitamos los espacios. También se centra en el «oriente» del «orientalismo», fijándose en que oriente sólo existe para la mirada occidental, creando no sólo un mundo social sino también procesos de racialización. Ahmed analiza así qué significa para los cuerpos estar situados en el tiempo y en el espacio. Los cuerpos toman su forma cuando se desplazan por el mundo, dirigiéndose hacia los objetos y hacia los otros, o alejándose de ellos. Por tanto, estar «orientado» significa sentirse en casa, saber dónde se está, o tener ciertos objetos al alcance. Las orientaciones determinan lo que está cerca del cuerpo o lo que puede alcanzarse. Una fenomenología queer demuestra que las relaciones sociales están organizadas de forma espacial, de manera que lo queer subvierte y reordena estas relaciones, al no seguir los caminos convencionales. De esta manera, una política de la desorientación coloca otros objetos a nuestro alcance, aquellos que, a primera vista, podrían parecer desviados.

In Living a Feminist Life Sara Ahmed shows how feminist theory is generated from everyday life and the ordinary experiences of being a feminist at home and at work. Building on legacies of feminist of color scholarship in particular, Ahmed offers a poetic and personal meditation on how feminists become estranged from worlds they critique—often by naming and calling attention to problems—and how feminists learn about worlds from their efforts to transform them. Ahmed also provides her most sustained commentary on the figure of the feminist killjoy introduced in her earlier work while showing how feminists create inventive solutions—such as forming support systems—to survive the shattering experiences of facing the walls of racism and sexism. The killjoy survival kit and killjoy manifesto, with which the book concludes, supply practical tools for how to live a feminist life, thereby strengthening the ties between the inventive creation of feminist theory and living a life that sustains it.

What does diversity do? What are we doing when we use the language of diversity? Sara Ahmed offers an account of the diversity world based on interviews with diversity practitioners in higher education, as well as her own experience of doing diversity work. Diversity is an ordinary even unremarkable feature of institutional life. And yet, diversity practitioners often experience institutions as resistant to their work, as captured through their use of the metaphor of the “brick wall.” On Being Included offers an explanation of this apparent paradox. It explores the gap between symbolic commitments to diversity and the experience of those who embody diversity. Commitments to diversity are understood as "non-performatives" that do not bring about what they name. The book provides an account of institutional whiteness and shows how racism can be obscured by the institutionalization of diversity. Diversity is used as evidence that institutions do not have a problem with racism. On Being Included offers a critique of what happens when diversity is offered as a solution. It also shows how diversity workers generate knowledge of institutions in attempting to transform them.

In this groundbreaking work, Sara Ahmed demonstrates how queer studies can put phenomenology to productive use. Focusing on the “orientation” aspect of “sexual orientation” and the “orient” in “orientalism,” Ahmed examines what it means for bodies to be situated in space and time. Bodies take shape as they move through the world directing themselves toward or away from objects and others. Being “orientated” means feeling at home, knowing where one stands, or having certain objects within reach. Orientations affect what is proximate to the body or what can be reached. A queer phenomenology, Ahmed contends, reveals how social relations are arranged spatially, how queerness disrupts and reorders these relations by not following the accepted paths, and how a politics of disorientation puts other objects within reach, those that might, at first glance, seem awry. Ahmed proposes that a queer phenomenology might investigate not only how the concept of orientation is informed by phenomenology but also the orientation of phenomenology itself. Thus she reflects on the significance of the objects that appear—and those that do not—as signs of orientation in classic phenomenological texts such as Husserl’s Ideas. In developing a queer model of orientations, she combines readings of phenomenological texts—by Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Fanon—with insights drawn from queer studies, feminist theory, critical race theory, Marxism, and psychoanalysis. Queer Phenomenology points queer theory in bold new directions.

Examining the relationship between strangers, embodiment and community, Strange Encounters challenges the assumptions that the stranger is simply anybody we do not recognize and instead proposes that he or she is socially constructued as somebody we already know. Using feminist and postcolonial theory this book examines the impact of multiculturalism and globalization on embodiment and community whilst considering the ethical and political implication of its critique for post-colonial feminism. A diverse range of texts are analyzed which produce the figure of 'the stranger', showing that it has alternatively been expelled as the origin of danger - such as in neighbourhood watch, or celebrated as the origin of difference - as in multiculturalism. The author argues that both of these standpoints are problematic as they involve 'stranger fetishism'; they assume that the stranger 'has a life of its own'.

In The Cultural Politics of the Emotions, Sara Ahmed develops a new methodology for reading "the emotionality of texts." She offers analyses of the role of emotions in debates on international terrorism, asylum and migration, and reconciliation and reparation, and reflects on the role of emotions in feminist and queer politics. Of interest to readers in gender studies and cultural studies, the psychology and sociology of emotions, and phenomenology and psychoanalysis, The Cultural Politics of the Emotions offers new ways of thinking about our inner and our outer lives.

'Not only a dazzling analysis of the workings of sexism, but a balm for the soul . It will teach you how to survive and how to transform the world' Hannah DawsonWe have to keep saying it because they keep doing it.Do colleagues roll their eyes in a meeting when you use words like sexism or racism? Do you refuse to laugh at jokes that aren't funny? Have you been called divisive for pointing out a division? Then you are a feminist killjoy, and this handbook is for you.The term killjoy has been used to dismiss feminism by claiming that it causes misery. But by naming ourselves feminist killjoys, we recover a feminist history, turning it into a source of strength as well as an inspiration.Drawing on her own stories and those of others, especially Black and brown feminists and queer thinkers, Sara Ahmed combines depth of thought with honesty and intimacy. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook unpicks the lies our culture tells us and provides a form of solidarity and companionship that can be returned to over a lifetime.

A renowned feminist thinker argues we need to get in the way of happiness, our own and other people’s, to build a more just world  Do you refuse to laugh at offensive jokes? Have you ever been accused of ruining dinner by pointing out your companion’s sexist comment? Are you often told to stop being so “woke”? If so, you might be a feminist killjoy—and this handbook is for you. In this book, feminist theorist Sara Ahmed shows how killing joy can be a radical world-making project.  Presenting sharp analysis of literature, film, and influential feminist works, and drawing on her own experiences as a queer feminist scholar-activist of color, Ahmed reveals the invaluable lessons of the feminist killjoy, from the importance of asking questions to the power of the eye roll. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook offers an outstretched hand to feminist killjoys everywhere and an essential intellectual guide to the transformative power of getting in the way. 

The Promise of Happiness is a provocative cultural critique of the imperative to be happy. It asks what follows when we make our desires and even our own happiness conditional on the happiness of others: “I just want you to be happy”; “I’m happy if you’re happy.” Combining philosophy and feminist cultural studies, Sara Ahmed reveals the affective and moral work performed by the “happiness duty,” the expectation that we will be made happy by taking part in that which is deemed good, and that by being happy ourselves, we will make others happy. Ahmed maintains that happiness is a promise that directs us toward certain life choices and away from others. Happiness is promised to those willing to live their lives in the right way. Ahmed draws on the intellectual history of happiness, from classical accounts of ethics as the good life, through seventeenth-century writings on affect and the passions, eighteenth-century debates on virtue and education, and nineteenth-century utilitarianism. She engages with feminist, antiracist, and queer critics who have shown how happiness is used to justify social oppression, and how challenging oppression causes unhappiness. Reading novels and films including Mrs. Dalloway, The Well of Loneliness, Bend It Like Beckham, and Children of Men, Ahmed considers the plight of the figures who challenge and are challenged by the attribution of happiness to particular objects or social ideals: the feminist killjoy, the unhappy queer, the angry black woman, and the melancholic migrant. Through her readings she raises critical questions about the moral order imposed by the injunction to be happy.

This exciting collection of work from leading feminist scholars including Elspeth Probyn, Penelope Deutscher and Chantal Nadeua engages with and extends the growing feminist literature on this fascinating topic.

Vithetens hegemoni innehåller reflektioner om vithet och rasism i vardagen och inom olika institutionskulturer. Genom att dra nytta av sin egen erfarenhet av att bebo en vit värld som en icke-vit kropp undersöker feministen och teoretikern Sara Ahmed hur vitheten blir ”världslig”, hur vithet är resultatet av en rasifiering som skapar ramarna för vad kroppar ”kan göra”. I föreliggande antologi introduceras läsaren för en rad centrala områden i Ahmeds författarskap, såsom affektekonomier, känslopolitik, hemmets orient, mångkulturalismens lyckolöften och vithetens fenomenologi. Ett bärande tema är hennes analyser av hur vitheten lyckas upprätthålla sin hegemoni också genom antirasistiska strävanden och mångfaldsprojekt. Sara Ahmed är professor i Race and Cultural Studies vid Goldsmiths College, University of London. Vithetens hegemoni är det första av hennes verk som ges ut på svenska.

Vivere una vita femminista in un mondo non femminista può essere faticoso, perché faticoso è lottare contro la violenza di un sistema che ci promette la felicità solo a patto di adeguarci ai suoi meccanismi. Intrecciando la sua narrazione con quella di altre femministe nere e of color prima di lei, Sara Ahmed ci offre una riflessione personale e politica sull'esperienza quotidiana di una vita dedicata a essere quella che chiama una killjoy femminista, una guastafeste, un'ammazzagioia. Vivere una vita come guastafeste femministe significa assumersi la fatica di abdicare alla normalità ed essere caparbiamente inopportune nel mettere in discussione l'orizzonte di felicità socialmente appropriato. Ahmed ci propone strategie di sopravvivenza affinché il femminismo possa continuare a esistere e a cambiare il mondo, ci sprona a coltivare l'insoddisfazione che ci spinge a creare "il mondo a cui aspiriamo", ci incita a svelare la violenza che si nasconde negli imperativi della norma, a trovare soluzioni creative agli ostacoli quotidiani e a creare reti di cura e supporto per continuare la lotta. Vivere una vita femminista è una riflessione teorica che si fa prassi: il libro mette a disposizione un manifesto e un kit di sopravvivenza per killjoy femministe, una sopravvivenza intesa come un progetto collettivo per mantenere in vita noi stesse e la nostra lotta. Perché, per sopravvivere, il femminismo ha bisogno delle femministe tanto quanto le femministe hanno bisogno del femminismo. Una vita femminista non è solo fatica, e prendersi cura di noi stesse è parte integrante della lotta: circondiamoci di tempo, vita, ironia, emozioni, corpi e di altre guastafeste per costruirci una felicità collettiva, una felicità femminista.

Neste livro, Ahmed identifica duas figuras que servem para aprofundar sua análise em termos afetivos e políticos, que são essenciais para refletir sobre o papel do feminismo na América Latina. A primeira é a do “estranho perigoso”: uma noção que pressupõe que a violência vem sempre de fora e não da família, e a segunda é a da “feminista estraga-prazeres”, que questiona quem se sente à vontade em um mundo assolado pela injustiça e contra o qual Ahmed indica que a resistência é possível e poderosa. Viver uma vida feminista é habitar este paradoxo: a dificuldade de estar em contato com um mundo que nos machuca e a infeliz esperança de, justamente por isso, poder transformá-lo.

In Willful Subjects Sara Ahmed explores willfulness as a charge often made by some against others. One history of will is a history of attempts to eliminate willfulness from the will. Delving into philosophical and literary texts, Ahmed examines the relation between will and willfulness, ill will and good will, and the particular will and general will. Her reflections shed light on how will is embedded in a political and cultural landscape, how it is embodied, and how will and willfulness are socially mediated. Attentive to the wayward, the wandering, and the deviant, Ahmed considers how willfulness is taken up by those who have received its charge. Grounded in feminist, queer, and antiracist politics, her sui generis analysis of the willful subject, the figure who wills wrongly or wills too much, suggests that willfulness might be required to recover from the attempt at its elimination.

Żyć feministycznym życiem to więcej niż książka o feminizmie; to książka o tym, co to znaczy być feministką w praktyce. W tym klasycznym już tekście współczesnej myśli feministycznej Sara Ahmed przypomina, że teoria feministyczna wypływa z codziennego doświadczenia. Autorka pokazuje, w jaki sposób bycie feministką i konfrontacja z seksizmem, rasizmem i innymi formami dyskryminacji i wykluczenia budzi w nas poczucie, że w świecie, który swobodnie zamieszkują inni nie jesteśmy u siebie. Jednocześnie to właśnie to doświadczenie zderzenia ze światem oraz próba jego przekształcenia sprawiają, że jesteśmy w stanie tworzyć nowe idee i nowe sposoby bycia. Łącząc refleksję teoretyczną z elementami autobiograficznymi książka ta jest manifestem, który zachęca wszystkie osoby sprzeciwiające się nierównościom i niesprawiedliwości do wspólnego działania na rzecz budowy lepszego świata. „Gdyby tak zebrać się w jednej przestrzeni, jakież pokłady wiedzy byśmy zgromadziły! Nic dziwnego, że feminizm wzbudza lęk: razem jesteśmy niebezpieczne.”