Sara Ahmed Quotes
Sara Ahmed is a British-Australian feminist philosopher and independent scholar, formerly professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, whose work has shaped contemporary feminist phenomenology, queer theory, and the sociology of institutions. The Cultural Politics of Emotion argued that emotions are not properties of individuals but the means by which bodies are oriented toward and against each other in shared public spaces, while Queer Phenomenology and The Promise of Happiness analyzed the orientation of bodies and lives toward heteronormative goods. The quotes below are attributed to Sara Ahmed, organized by topic.
Sara Ahmed on Knowledge
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Attributed to Sara Ahmed:
“Citation is a feminist memory.”
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“We learn about worlds when they do not accommodate us. Not being accommodated can be pedagogy. We generate ideas through the struggles we have to be in the world; we come to question worlds when we are in question. When a question becomes a place you reside in, everything can be thrown into question: explanations you might have handy that allow you to make sense or navigate your way through unfamiliar as well as familiar landscapes no longer work.”
p. 22 -
“The exposure of violence is perceived by the privileged as the origin of violence.”
p. 28 -
“To point out harassment is to be viewed as the harasser; to point out oppression is to be viewed as oppressive.”
p. 28 -
“Jokiness allows a constant trivializing: as if by joking someone is suspending judgment on what is being said. She didn’t mean anything by it; lighten up. A killjoy knows from experience: when people keep making light of something, something heavy is going on”
p. 29
Sara Ahmed on Life
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“Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future. Solidarity involves commitment , and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.”
The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2004), p. 189
Sara Ahmed on Politics
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Attributed to Sara Ahmed:
“When you expose a problem, you pose a problem.”
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Attributed to Sara Ahmed:
“Sometimes a feminist killjoy is what a happy table needs.”
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Attributed to Sara Ahmed:
“Privilege is an energy-saving device; it conserves the will of those who already get to choose.”
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Attributed to Sara Ahmed:
“To live a feminist life is to make the world feminism makes possible.”
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“The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2004), p. 189”
Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future. Solidarity involves commitment , and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.