IWD, Killjoy Solidarity Event, The Feminist Library, London
Mar
8
4:00 PM16:00

IWD, Killjoy Solidarity Event, The Feminist Library, London

Join us on IWD to express killjoy solidarity, the solidarity we need to face what we come up against. This informal discussion, led by feminist of colour scholar-activists Sara Ahmed and Akanksha Mehta, marks the moment of the paperback release of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. We hope to create a space for shared reflection on how we survive and transform institutions, finding each other in the midst of many violences. We will keep in mind Chicana-Palestinian feminist Sarah Ihmoud’s vital question, “What does it mean to practice feminism in a moment of bearing witness to genocide?” 


Sara Ahmed (she/her) is a queer feminist scholar of colour. She has been writing about feminist killjoys for some time (but has been a feminist killjoy for much longer).

Akanksha Mehta (she/her) is a queer feminist educator, researcher, and writer from India, living in SE London. She likes to fight, dismantle, build and dreams of a world that is not  so exhausting for every one of us. 

Registration details coming soon!

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Book Launch, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, Gay's the Word, London
Mar
7
7:00 PM19:00

Book Launch, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, Gay's the Word, London

Join us to share some killjoy solidarity and to celebrate the paperback release of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook! Author Sara Ahmed will be in conversation with her friend and comrade in queer world making Jonathan Keane. They will reflect together on why the figure of the feminist killjoy has so much queer potential. 

Further information and tickets here: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/18284/the-feminist-killjoy-handbook-sara-ahmed-in-conversation-with-jonathan-keane

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Public Lecture (Virtual), "Travelling with Feminist Killjoys,"  WSU, US
Feb
28
12:00 PM12:00

Public Lecture (Virtual), "Travelling with Feminist Killjoys," WSU, US

In this lecture I reflect back on my experience of writing The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (Seal Press, 2023). I explain why I gave feminist killjoys a book of their own, well over ten years after giving them a chapter in The Promise of Happiness. I explore how feminist killjoys turned up in my own work and what I have learnt from killjoy encounters, at home and at work. I will also clarify what I mean by “killing joy as a world making project,” which is the tagline for my feminist killjoy blog. 

Register here: https://ramconnect.wcupa.edu/CWGE/rsvp_boot?id=2260070

Time zone EST (5-6.30pm GMT)

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"Killjoys at Work" (Virtual Lecture), Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Oct
26
9:30 AM09:30

"Killjoys at Work" (Virtual Lecture), Kwantlen Polytechnic University

To be a killjoy at work is to work on institutions as well as at them. In this lecture I explore what we come to know about institutions from our efforts to transform them. I will draw especially from two chapters “The Feminist Killjoy as Philosopher” and “The Feminist Killjoy as Activist” in my newly published The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. To be killjoys at work means being willing to confront institutional problems, to question how diversity is happily claimed by organisations, and to challenge how they use our efforts to change them as evidence they have changed. To be killjoys at work also requires being alert to how the figure of the feminist killjoy can be appropriated and neutralised. We have to find other institutional killjoys, because the more we come up against, the more we need more.

Register here: https://www.kpu.ca/provost-presents

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Killjoys at Work (Virtual Lecture), English Department, Washington State University
Oct
12
8:00 AM08:00

Killjoys at Work (Virtual Lecture), English Department, Washington State University

To be a feminist killjoy is to be a killjoy at work. We work on institutions as well as at them. In this talk I explore what we come to know about institutions from our efforts to transform them. I will draw especially from two chapters “The Feminist Killjoy as Philosopher” and “The Feminist Killjoy as Activist” in my newly published The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. To be killjoys at work means being willing to confront institutional problems, to question how diversity is happily claimed by organisations, and to challenge how they use our efforts to change them as evidence they have changed. To be killjoys at work also requires being alert to how the figure of the feminist killjoy can be appropriated and neutralised. We have to find other institutional killjoys, because the more we come up against, the more we need more.

8-10am (Pacific Daylight Time), 4-6pm (British Summer Time)

Details and registration here: https://events.wsu.edu/event/english-dept-webinar-killjoys-at-work-by-dr-sara-ahmed/

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Killjoys at Work (Virtual Lecture), KWANTLEN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
Oct
10
9:30 AM09:30

Killjoys at Work (Virtual Lecture), KWANTLEN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

To be a killjoy at work is to work on institutions as well as at them. In this lecture I explore what we come to know about institutions from our efforts to transform them. I will draw especially from two chapters “The Feminist Killjoy as Philosopher” and “The Feminist Killjoy as Activist” in my newly published The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. To be killjoys at work means being willing to confront institutional problems, to question how diversity is happily claimed by organisations, and to challenge how they use our efforts to change them as evidence they have changed. To be killjoys at work also requires being alert to how the figure of the feminist killjoy can be appropriated and neutralised. We have to find other institutional killjoys, because the more we come up against, the more we need more.

9.30-11.00 (PDT), 5.30-7pm (BST).

Register here: https://www.kpu.ca/provost-presents

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Public Lecture, "Killing Joy as a Queer Project," Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Wesleyen University
Oct
5
4:30 PM16:30

Public Lecture, "Killing Joy as a Queer Project," Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Wesleyen University

  • CFA Ring Family Performing Arts Hall (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

In my newly published The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, I suggest that the feminist killjoy is a queer figure with a queer history. When you reclaim the term feminist killjoy you end up in conversation with other people who, like you, find a potential or promise in that term, how its negativity can be redirected. In this lecture, I explore the queerness of the project of killing joy as a project of redirecting negativity. I develop some of my arguments about ‘the unhappy queer’ from The Promise of Happiness (2010) as well as ‘queer use’ from What’s the Use? On the Uses of Use (2019). In giving the feminist killjoy a queer history, I also show how and why killing joy is a world-making project."

Further Information: https://www.wesleyan.edu/fgss/events.html

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Launch of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (US edition), The People's Forum, NYC
Oct
3
6:00 PM18:00

Launch of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (US edition), The People's Forum, NYC

“I am not willing to make happiness my cause” Sara Ahmed

“I refuse to be polite or civil with anyone who does not recognise my full humanity” Mona Eltahaway

Please join us for a conversation between Sara Ahmed and Mona Eltahawy about impolite, uncivil and killjoy feminisms and why they are key to the disruption of hetero-patriarchy, colonialism and racial capitalism. The conversation is to mark the launch of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, written as a “helping hand” for feminist killjoys everywhere, and published by Seal Press on October 3rd, 2023. In the handbook, Sara includes Mona’s The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls as one of her recommended texts for feminist killjoys.

Registration is here: https://peoplesforum.org/events/book-launch-the-feminist-killjoy-handbook-w-sara-ahmed-mona-eltahaway/

Bios of Speakers

Sara Ahmed is an independent queer feminist scholar of colour. She is an unprofessional feminist and a professional feminist killjoy and her work is concerned with how power is experienced and challenged in everyday life and institutional cultures. She has just published her first trade book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook with Seal Press. Previous books (published by Duke University Press) include Complaint! (2021), What's The Use? On the Uses of Use (2019), Living a Feminist Life (2017), Willful Subjects (2014), On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (2012), The Promise of Happiness (2010) and Queer Phenomenology: Objects, Orientations, Others (2006). She is currently writing A Complainer’s Handbook: A Guide to Building Less Hostile Institutions and has begun a new project on common sense. She blogs at feministkilljoy.com.

 

Mona Eltahawy is a feminist author, commentator, and disruptor of patriarchy. She is founder and editor-in-chief of the newsletter FEMINIST GIANT. Her opinion essays have appeared in media across the world. Her first book Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution (2005) targeted patriarchy in the Middle East and North Africa and her second The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls (2019) took that disruption worldwide. She is a contributor to the recent anthology This Arab is Queer and is editing the anthology Bloody Hell! And Other Stories: Adventures in Menopause from Across the Personal and Political Spectrums. Her new book due 2024 is a memoir of menopause called The King Herself: How Hatshepsut Helped Me Unbecome.

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Public Lecture, Killjoys at Work, The New School
Oct
2
5:00 PM17:00

Public Lecture, Killjoys at Work, The New School

The New School’s Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence is excited to invite you to a talk by Sara Ahmed  "Killjoys at Work." To be a feminist killjoy is to be a killjoy at work. We work on institutions as well as at them. In this lecture Sara explores what we come to know about institutions from our efforts to transform them. She will draw especially from two chapters “The Feminist Killjoy as Philosopher” and “The Feminist Killjoy as Activist” in her newly published The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. To be killjoys at work means being willing to confront institutional problems, to question how diversity is happily claimed by organizations, and to challenge how they use our efforts to change them as evidence they have changed. To be killjoys at work also requires being alert to how the figure of the feminist killjoy can be appropriated and neutralized. We have to find other institutional killjoys, because the more we come up against, the more we need more.

With Deva Woodly (Brown University) as discussant, the talk will be followed by a reception for Sara Ahmed’s new book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. Introduced by Dr. Renée T. White. Copies will be available for purchase and signing.

Register here: https://event.newschool.edu/saraahmedonkilljoysatwork

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The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, Conversation, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester
May
26
6:30 PM18:30

The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, Conversation, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester

Join us for an evening with renowned feminist author, Sara Ahmed, as she discusses her latest book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. In this collection of essays, Ahmed explores the ways in which feminist politics is often met with resistance, and how being a feminist killjoy can be a form of resistance in itself. Drawing on her own experiences and those of other feminists, Ahmed offers insightful and thought-provoking commentary on issues such as racism, sexism, and homophobia, and the ways in which they intersect.

During the event, Ahmed will read from her book, followed by a discussion and Q&A session with the audience. This is an excellent opportunity to engage with one of the most important voices in contemporary feminist thought and to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and rewards of feminist activism.


Tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-conversation-with-sara-ahmed-the-feminist-killjoy-handbook-tickets-616391051227?aff=ebdshpsearchautocomplete

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'Killing Joy as a Queer Project,' Public Lecture, Queer@Kings, London
May
24
7:00 PM19:00

'Killing Joy as a Queer Project,' Public Lecture, Queer@Kings, London

In my recently published The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, I suggest that the feminist killjoy is a queer figure with a queer history. When you reclaim the term feminist killjoy you end up in conversation with other people who, like you, find a potential or promise in that term, how its negativity can be redirected. In this lecture, I explore the queerness of the project of killing joy as a project of redirecting negativity. I develop some of my arguments about ‘the unhappy queer’ from The Promise of Happiness (2010) as well as ‘queer use’ from What’s the Use? On the Uses of Use (2019). In giving the feminist killjoy a queer history, I also show how and why killing joy is a world-making project."

The event is sold out but you can register for the livestream here:

https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/8dab7d15-716b-422d-abe6-98578e1459cd@8370cf14-16f3-4c16-b83c-724071654356

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Sara Ahmed and Hannah Dawson in Conversation, London
May
18
7:00 PM19:00

Sara Ahmed and Hannah Dawson in Conversation, London

Join us when we mark Feminist Book Fortnight with a discussion of Sara Ahmed’s THE FEMINIST KILLJOY HANDBOOK and Hannah Dawson’s anthology THE PENGUIN BOOK OF FEMINIST WRITING.

Organised by Pages of Hackney bookshop. Tickets and further information available here: https://www.pagesofhackney.co.uk/event/sara-ahmed-and-hannah-dawson-in-conversation/

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Conversation with Judith Butler, Cambridge University
Apr
28
5:30 PM17:30

Conversation with Judith Butler, Cambridge University

In 2014, Sara Ahmed interviewed Judith Butler about their book Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1). Sara, referencing a previous conversation, asked Judith whether there was a connection between how they had been “derailed” as a philosopher and becoming a “feminist and queer theorist.” Judith answered: “I have to say that I am glad to own those terms, and I certainly realize that feminism is a name I took on, and that ‘queer theorist’ is one that arrived at my steps at a certain point in history.” Join Sara and Judith for a conversation about their journeys as feminist scholars who arrived at “queer theory” at different points. They will reflect on their experiences of working in an increasingly hostile and anti-queer environment and on why figures such as the feminist killjoy and queer trouble maker become useful resources. They will also share observations about writing their first trade books: Sara’s recently published The Feminist Killjoy Handbook and Judith’s forthcoming Who's Afraid of Gender?

(1) This interview was published in Sexualities in 2016. You can download it here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1363460716629607.

Tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sara-ahmed-judith-butler-in-conversation-tickets-598371283617

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Public Lecture (in person), California College of the Arts, San Francisco
Apr
6
5:00 PM17:00

Public Lecture (in person), California College of the Arts, San Francisco

Killing Joy as a Queer Project

In my forthcoming The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, I suggest that the feminist killjoy is a queer figure with a queer history. When you reclaim the term feminist killjoy you end up in conversation with other people who, like you, find a potential or promise in that term, how its negativity can be redirected. In this lecture, I explore the queerness of the project of killing joy as a project of redirecting negativity. I develop some of my arguments about ‘the unhappy queer’ from The Promise of Happiness (2010) as well as ‘queer use’ from What’s the Use? On the Uses of Use (2019). In giving the feminist killjoy a queer history, I also show how and why killing joy is a world making project. 

Venue: CCA's Timken Lecture Hall (California College of the Arts Main Building 1111 Eighth Street, San Francisco, CA 94107).

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Public Lecture (In person), Stanford University
Apr
4
4:00 PM16:00

Public Lecture (In person), Stanford University

Losing Your Hand: Complaint, Common Sense and Other Institutional Legacies

In his preface to the 2020 book Common Sense: Conservative Thinking for a Post-Liberal Age, Michael Nazir-Ali refers to how the analytical philosopher G. E. Moore defended common sense by pointing to “his own hand,” to show he was “more certain that his hand existed” than he was of “any sceptical attempts to show that such was not the case.” Nazir-Ali then makes use of Moore’s hand to talk about how the coherence and stability of social relationships and institutions is under threat. Many of the contributors to this book describe common sense as what has been or is being stolen by “woke activists” with their “endless fires of grievance.” In this lecture I reflect how the objects of common sense – including tables as well hands – become legacy projects. I return to the testimonies I collected from academics and students who have made complaints about abuses of power within universities shared in my book Complaint! I explore how some of us become complainers by questioning, or not reproducing, a legacy.


Event details are available here: https://events.stanford.edu/event/sara_ahmed_losing_your_hand_complaint_common_sense_and_other_institutional_legacies

 


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Conversation with Professor Sunny Singh, Foyles, London
Mar
9
7:00 PM19:00

Conversation with Professor Sunny Singh, Foyles, London

Sara will be in conversation with Sunny Singh. She teaches English Literature at London Metropolitan University with a particular interest in feminist and postcolonial theory.

https://www.foyles.co.uk/Public/Events/Detail.aspx?eventId=4302

Their conversation will be followed by audience Q&A and a book signing. Doors open from 6:45pm.

Venue: The Auditorium (Level 6) at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road*

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IWD Lecture, In person and Virtual, Limerick, Ireland
Mar
8
6:30 PM18:30

IWD Lecture, In person and Virtual, Limerick, Ireland

To celebrate International Women's Day 2023, MIC FemFest is hosting a Public Lecture by Sara Ahmed 'Travelling with Feminist Killjoys'

In this lecture I reflect back on my experience of writing The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. I explore how the feminist killjoy turned up in my own work, explain why I describe her as my companion, and clarify what I mean by “killing joy as a world making project.” I offer some killjoy survival tips and show how experiences of killing joy give us some of the resources and skills we need to navigate an unjust world.

Sign up for in person here: https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/sara-ahmed-travelling-with-feminist-killjoys-tickets-528240269867

You can join the livestream here: https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_MTNlZWExYzktY2ZkYS00ODgzLTg4MzQtODM2ZjlkOTlkYjFi%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257b%2522Tid%2522%253a%2522aa52c40e-ac89-4a63-b2cf-7c570fdf1df2%2522%252c%2522Oid%2522%253a%2522dc977418-af8b-49b1-8e07-998a85cb20ab%2522%257d%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=a8ed5554-9414-4c2d-950d-3f1a9219de2b&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true

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The Feminist Killjoy Handbook Book Launch, Dublin, Ireland
Mar
7
7:00 PM19:00

The Feminist Killjoy Handbook Book Launch, Dublin, Ireland

Join the Museum Literature of Ireland (MoLI) and UCD on 7 March at 7pm for the launch of Sara Ahmed's new book The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. In The Feminist Killjoy Handbook Ahmed draws on her own stories and those of others, especially Black and brown feminists and queer thinkers and 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. For this event, Ahmed will be introduced by Professor Kath Browne, UCD School of Geography.


The event will be followed by a drinks reception. 

Further Information: https://moli.ie/whats-on/events/

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Launch of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, In Person and Livestreamed
Mar
2
6:30 PM18:30

Launch of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook, In Person and Livestreamed

Please join us to celebrate the launch of The Feminist Killjoy Handbook by Sara Ahmed, published by Allen Lane. Sara will be joined by some special guests who will share their thoughts on survival and activism, creativity and collaboration and #killjoy solidarity including Joan Anim-Addo, Campbell X, Noreen Masud, Shamira Meghani and Nim Ralph.

The book launch is taking place in the Studio, Rich Mix, London. Some tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-feminist-killjoy-handbook-launch-and-celebration-tickets-530668462657.

You can sign up for the livestream here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zvCb4SruQ_OLl7Xs5cMd7g

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Virtual Public Lecture,  Centre for Gender and Intersectional Studies, Utah State University
Feb
22
10:00 AM10:00

Virtual Public Lecture, Centre for Gender and Intersectional Studies, Utah State University

Feminist Killjoys at Work

In this lecture I explore what we come to know about institutions from our efforts to transform them. I will draw especially on two chapters “The Feminist Killjoy as Philosopher” and “The Feminist Killjoy as Activist,” from my forthcoming The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. To be a feminist killjoy (or another kind of institutional killjoy) means not only confronting institutional problems, but challenging how institutions use our efforts to change them as evidence they have changed. The lecture explores how being feminist killjoys at work means recognising that the figure of the feminist killjoy can be appropriated and neutralised. Being feminist killjoys at work also requires finding other institutional killjoys, because the more we come up against, the more we need more.

Registration

https://usu-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zIIsXtuvTsioQdGGQ7bttw

Time Zone: MST 10am, GMT 5pm

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'Losing Your Hand,' Virtual Lecture, Gender Studies, Malmö University
Feb
8
3:15 PM15:15

'Losing Your Hand,' Virtual Lecture, Gender Studies, Malmö University

Losing Your Hand: Complaint, Common Sense and Other Institutional Legacies

In his preface to the 2020 book Common Sense: Conservative Thinking for a Post-Liberal Age, Michael Nazir-Ali refers to how the analytical philosopher G. E. Moore defended common sense by pointing to “his own hand,” to show he was “more certain that his hand existed” than he was of “any sceptical attempts to show that such was not the case.” Nazir-Ali then makes use of Moore’s hand to talk about how the coherence and stability of social relationships and institutions is under threat. Many of the contributors to this book articulate common sense as what has been or is being stolen by “woke activists” with their “endless fires of grievance.” In this lecture I reflect how the objects of common sense – including tables as well hands – become legacy projects. I return to the testimonies I collected from academics and students who have made complaints about abuses of power within universities shared in my recent book Complaint! I explore how some of us become complainers by questioning, or not reproducing, a legacy.

Time zone: 3.15 EEST, 2.15 GMT

You can join the event here: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/65152906192#success

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Virtual Public Lecture, 'Travelling with Feminist Killjoys,'  Alberta University of the Arts
Feb
1
11:00 AM11:00

Virtual Public Lecture, 'Travelling with Feminist Killjoys,' Alberta University of the Arts

Travelling with Feminist Killjoys

 

In this lecture I reflect back on my experience of writing The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (forthcoming in 2023 with Penguin in the UK and Seal Press in the US). I explore how the feminist killjoy turned up in my own work, why I describe her as my companion, and clarify what I mean by “killing joy as a world making project.” I offer some killjoy survival tips and show how experiences of killing joy give us some of the resources and skills we need to navigate an unjust world and to build more open and less-hostile institutions.

Time zone: 11am MT, 6pm GMT

Registration:

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_QcLkO1VVTiGtVotPxVPXTA

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May
27
6:00 PM18:00

Conference Keynote, "Feminist Ears, Listening to Complaint, Learning about Violence,' Making Feminist Universities, Argentina

This lecture explores why the project of redressing violence including institutional violence (the violence of how institutions respond to violence) requires new ways of listening to complaint or of acquiring feminist ears. In Living a Feminist Life (2017), I described feminist ears as how we hear “the sounds of no, the complaints about violence, the refusal to laugh at sexist jokes” as speech. More recently in Complaint! (2021), I describe feminist ears as a research method, a way of gathering as well as listening to complaints, and as an institutional tactic, a way of pressing against the very institutions in which complaints are made. In this lecture, I will reflect back on what I have learnt from listening to complaints, exploring how the institutional barriers that stop complaints from being heard are the same barriers that enable harassment and bullying. To acquire a feminist ear is thus to come to a better understanding of what it will take to challenge institutional cultures of harassment.

The times given here are British Summer Time.

Further Information about the conference is here: https://linktr.ee/agesexunr

Link to lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LOs8mnprgo&list=PLa868TvXg4RiTxew1aDSUtw5mYHF7iD5d

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Public Lecture, Unversity of Iceland 12 pm (GMT), 1PM (BST)
May
24
1:00 PM13:00

Public Lecture, Unversity of Iceland 12 pm (GMT), 1PM (BST)

Feminist Ears: Listening to Complaint, Learning about Violence

This lecture explores why the project of redressing violence including institutional violence (the violence of how institutions respond to violence) requires new ways of listening to complaint or of acquiring feminist ears. In Living a Feminist Life (2017), I described feminist ears as how we hear “the sounds of no, the complaints about violence, the refusal to laugh at sexist jokes” as speech. More recently in Complaint! (2021), I describe feminist ears as a research method, a way of gathering as well as listening to complaints, and as an institutional tactic, a way of pressing against the very institutions in which complaints are made. In this lecture, I will reflect back on what I have learnt from listening to complaints, exploring how the institutional barriers that stop complaints from being heard are the same barriers that enable harassment and bullying. To acquire a feminist ear is thus to come to a better understanding of what it will take to challenge institutional cultures of harassment.

This lecture will be livestreamed. No need to register

https://livestream.com/hi/feministears

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Education, Power and Social Change Annual Lecture, Department of Psycho-Social Studies, Birkbeck College, UK
May
4
6:00 PM18:00

Education, Power and Social Change Annual Lecture, Department of Psycho-Social Studies, Birkbeck College, UK

Losing Your Hand: Complaint, Common Sense and Other Institutional Legacies

In his preface to the 2020 book Common Sense: Conservative Thinking for a Post-Liberal Age, Michael Nazir-Ali refers to how the analytical philosopher G. E. Moore defended common sense by pointing to “his own hand,” to show he was “more certain that his hand existed” than he was of “any sceptical attempts to show that such was not the case.” Nazir-Ali then makes use of Moore’s hand to talk about the coherence and stability of relationships and institutions. Many contributions to this conservative common sense articulate common sense as the loss of a shared reality as well as legacy. In this lecture, I return to the testimonies I collected from academics and students who have made complaints about abuses of power within universities shared in my recent book Complaint! I will explore how some become complainers by virtue of not reproducing a legacy or how some complaints are framed as the failure to hold onto that legacy. Complaint provides a lens with which to think about appeals to common sense, how common sense becomes all the more appealing, the more some seem to be losing their hand.

This lecture is online. Book your place here: https://www.bbk.ac.uk/events/remote_event_view?id=30270

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