The
CIGS Annual Lecture will take place on Wednesday 3 March 2010. The full
details are:
Wednesday
3 March 2010
6.00pm
(reception at 5.30pm) in the Yorkshire Bank Lecture Theatre – Leeds
University Business School
Professor Sara Ahmed
KILLING JOY: FEMINISM AND THE HISTORY OF HAPPINESS
Abstract:
This
paper offers a feminist critique of happiness. It proceeds by suspending belief
that happiness is a good thing, or that happiness is what we want, as beliefs
that are central to the intellectual history of happiness. The paper suggests
that feminist histories might offer an alternative history of happiness. It
shows how happiness is what makes some things into goods (happy objects are
those that are anticipated to cause happiness), and introduces the concept of
"conditional happiness,"
when one person's happiness is made conditional upon another's, to explore how,
for some, happiness means following other people¹s goods. The paper considers
feminist consciousness as a consciousness of unhappiness, of what is lost or is
given up by following the paths of happiness. Such consciousness does not
necessarily involve a form of self-consciousness but a worldly consciousness in
which unhappiness disturbs the familiar.
The paper reflects specifically on Black feminist consciousness as a
consciousness of what does not get noticed when happiness provides a horizon of
experience.
The
lecture is preceded by a reception at 5.30pm where wine and canapés will be
available. If you would like to attend the lecture please could you let
me know at [log in to unmask]
so that I can plan for catering needs.
The venue can be found on the map available by clicking on the link
below. The Leeds Business School is numbered 19 on the key.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/students/assets/campus_map.pdf
I look forward to seeing you there.
Matthew
Wilkinson
Centre
Co-ordinator
Centre
for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies The Coach House
5
Hillary Place
University
of Leeds
Leeds
LS2 9JT
UK
0113
343 3770
email:
[log in to unmask]