9 Mar 2018 17:15 - 19:00 McCrum Lecture Theatre, Corpus Christi College

Description

Please note that this lecture was rearranged from its original date of Wednesday 7 March due to scheduled UCU strike action.

CRASSH Impact Lecture Series, Lent Term 2018

Speaker: Sara Ahmed

Discussant: Karen Salt (Nottingham)

The lecture explores how complaint can be understood as a form of diversity work, as the work you have to do in order to make institutions more open and accommodating to others. The lecture draws on written and oral testimonies provided by those who have made complaints about racism, sexism, sexual harassment and bullying within universities. The lecture addresses the difficulty of making complaints and asks how and why complaints are blocked. The lecture shows how we learn about the institutional (as usual) from those who are trying to transform institutions.

Sara Ahmed is an independent feminist scholar and writer. She has held academic appointments at Lancaster University and Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work is concerned with how power is experienced and challenged in everyday life and institutional cultures. She has recently completed a book What’s the Use? On the Uses of Use and has begun a new research project on complaint. Her previous publications include Living a Feminist Life (2017), Willful Subjects (2014), On Being Included (2012), The Promise of Happiness (2010), Queer Phenomenology (2006), The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2014, 2004), Strange Encounters (2000) and Differences that Matter (1998). She also blogs at www.feministkilljoys.com.

This lecture is part of the CRASSH Impact Lecture Series, and will be open to all. An earlier lecture by Sara Ahmed in this series will take place on Friday 2 March. The title of this lecture is ‘Uses of use: diversity, utility and the university’, further information is available here.

Administrative assistance: events@crassh.cam.ac.uk

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