Sara AhmedEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

“Complaints often get us to the politics of how the institution works. And that's how I've tried to see it - as a lens into the institution.” Writer, scholar and activist Sara Ahmed learned the harsh truth about academic institutions over a decade ago. When a group of students and feminist faculty collectively complained about sexual harassment at their institution - Goldsmiths, University of London - a suite of deflective actions from the university ensured that the complaint never saw light of day and that the harassers stayed protected. In what became a long, drawn out battle against the institution, Ahmed fiercely advocated for all those who complained, and eventually blew the whistle on the university. The atmosphere turned so hostile and abusive towards her that it became untenable to work there and Ahmed resigned. When the resignation became public and the practices of the university were exposed, Ahmed was flooded with stories from all over the world. People wrote to her sharing that they had gone through something similar: They had been harassed, their complaints had been blocked, and some had even lost their jobs. “And that's actually what enabled the research,” Ahmed explains. “It was the kind of connections that are possible when we disclose information that professionalism tells us to keep hidden.” Saying “No” to her institution allowed Ahmed “to be part of a political movement that was not bound by one specific institution, but was actually thinking about what are these structural problems that are not being dealt with.” Ahmed’s book, NO! The Art and Activism of Complaining , published by Feminist Press (New York, 2026) is an astounding analytical work that exposes the deep rot within institutions of all types. Workplaces in most professions are hotbeds of injustice and oppression, and disproportionately impact women, queer and trans people, people of color, and people with disabilities. NO! emerges from research compiled over several years, as people began telling Ahmed their stories of sexual harassment, racism, sexism, transphobia and ableism in the workplace. Ahmed became a friend, teacher, parent, activist, therapist and scholar all rolled into one, and cultivated what she called a “feminist ear” in order to listen to and learn from grievances, reports and complaints. Institutional violence, Ahmed found, was a structure not an event, and is continually replicated by those in power in order to keep themselves in power. The complaint can be one way in which this unchecked power can be disrupted, exposed, and sometimes even ruptured. In NO! Ahmed offers an anatomy of a complaint: what happens when it's made, how it travels within the system, which complaint is repressed and which is quickly resolved, who complies, who resists, who benefits, and who is cast out. Ahmed believes that it is nearly impossible for an official complaint to ever become a vehicle for justice, but it is the act of complaining that is ultimately invaluable. The complaint itself, and the solidarities that emerge when a complaint is out there, becomes a tool for power mapping; a means of understanding exactly where power lies, who holds it, and how it moves. Along the way, it exposes the administrators who are invested in preserving the status quo despite pretending to care about helping the person being harassed. In this wide-ranging conversation with Bhakti Shringarpure, Ahmed discusses the art and activism of complaining by taking apart the nuts and bolts of workplace culture that purports to do one thing, but often does the exact opposite. She interrogates the nature of professionalism, the push for confidentiality, the culture of open secrets, hollow (non) performative gestures, the faux interest in diversity, gender and disability justice, and the institutional gaslighting of the persons who complain about being harassed. In fact, the last years of genocide in Palestine ha

Our favourite feminist killjoy is back! Sara Ahmed joins me to talk about her brand-new book No Is Not A Lonely Utterance: The Art and Activism of Complaining. In her first ever (how special are we) public conversation about the book, Sara speaks about becoming a feminist ear and a complaint collector, sharing stories of her own complaints as well as those shared with her in community. Explaining how the power of complaining lies in creativity and collectivity, Sara shows why saying no is a powerful queer method. References: Sarah Ahmed’s No Is Not A Lonely Utterance (Allen Lane, 2025) Sarah Ahmed’s The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (Penguin, 2023) Sarah Ahmed’s Complaint! (Duke, 2021) Sarah Ahmed’s What’s the Use (Duke, 2019) Sarah Ahmed’s On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life (Duke, 2012) Onomatopoeia Jean Porcelli Race Relations Amendment Act CARD Complaint Against Racial Discrimination Kennetta Hammond Perry’s London is the Place for Me: Black Britons, Citizenship and the Politics of Race (2018) https://global.oup.com/academic/product/london-is-the-place-for-me-9780190909949?cc=gb&lang=en& Heather Love’s Feeling Backward Chelsea Watego’s “Always Bet On Black (Power)” (2021) https://meanjin.com.au/essays/always-bet-on-black-power/ Questions you should be able to respond to after listening: What is a feminist ear? How might you become one? We speak about the role of energy in complaining. Where can energy come from or disappear to? To quote Sara: ‘puff, puff’ How does Sara define institutional fatalism and why might it be an illusion? What makes complaint a queer method? This is a question from Sara’s book: What is the first complaint you remember making? How do you feel about it now?

Sara Ahmed talks with Nino about her new book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way, out now from Seal Press. Ahmed is an independent queer feminist scholar of color whose work is concerned with how power is experienced and challenged in everyday life and institutional cultures. We talk about the radical potential of killing joy, complaining as an inter-temporal feminist practice, and why utopia might just be beside the point. Get your Killjoy Handbook here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-feminist-killjoy-handbook-the-radical-potential-of-getting-in-the-way-sara-ahmed/19712059?ean=9781541603752 and find Sara's recommended books from UQP Press by Chelsea Watego and Eileen Moreton-Robinson at these links. Sara Ahmed blogs at feministkilljoy.com . You can find her on twitter @SaraNAhmed and Instagram @SaraNoAhmed. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/queerworlds/support

Sara Ahmed, author, scholar, and one of our feminist heroes joins us to talk about her new book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook! Sara's work both as a scholar in the academy working on queer phenomenology, on post coloniality, and on emotions, as well as her work after she left the academy has been an inspiration. Her work, Living a Feminist Life, her work on Complaint, and her bold and powerful blog, Feminist Killjoys, taught me so much about how institutions functioned and helped me understand my experiences in the academy. In this conversation, Sara and I talk about the book, but also talk about the aunties in her life and many other things. Join us in the Academic Aunties Bookclub! In December, we're going to gather some feminist killjoy aunties to talk about the book! So after listening to this episode, go out and buy a copy . And then stay tuned in December when we're going to have our very first Academic Aunties Book Club! If you'd like to contribute to the conversation, email us your thoughts or even a voice memo to podcast@academicaunties.com . Related Links and Mentioned in the Episode The Feminist Killjoy Handbook Sara Ahmed's Website The Feminist Killjoy Blog The Cancer Journals , by Audre Lorde Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com . Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com .

In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu and Azeezah Kanji talk with Sara Ahmed about her new book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. How and why is it that complaining about sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of bigotry, is considered impolite? How is civility uncivil, and the mandate to be “happy” a tool for silencing grievances? Sara Ahmed tackles all those questions, and gives us strength and courage to keep on killingjoy and speaking truth. Sara Ahmed is an independent queer feminist scholar of colour. Her work is concerned with how power is experienced and challenged in everyday life and institutional cultures. Her first trade book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook is coming out with Seal Press next month. Previous books (all 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 . "She often said I was the daughter she didn't have. And I was the daughter she had, in fact, because I'll say that to you. And I got a lot from her. She was very much willing always to speak her mind. And I would watch her tell my father off. It would be just like, yeah, this is possible! And she was outspoken, but also very loving. She's no longer with us. I never came out to her in the sense of saying 'I am a lesbian' or whatever, but I think she kind of knew. We had conversations, and I think she would have been okay with it. And because she was just a very, very curious and creative person and an enormous influence in my life." https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/454793/the-feminist-killjoy-handbook-by-ahmed-sara/9780241619537 www.palumbo-liu.com https://speakingoutofplace.com https://twitter.com/palumboliu?s=20 Photo credit: Sarah Franklin

Dreams really do come true! In this episode, I get to chat to the legendary originator of the feminist killjoy herself: Sara Ahmed. We talk about who the killjoy is, what she can do for us and why it is important that you can both be her and have her as your companion. Sara talks about the people who inspired her in her work on complaint, happiness, and killjoy feminism: readers, students, poets and fellow theorists like bell hooks, Judith Butler and Audre Lorde. And of course we also talk about killjoy joy. For some extra #killjoysolidarity, follow @saranahmed and @queerlitpodcast on Twitter or @saranoahmed and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram. Bonus: you’ll get to see Sara’s super sweet dogs Poppy and Bluebell! CW: discussions of misogyny, homophobia, and racism Referenced work by Sara Ahmed: The Feminist Killjoy Handbook (2023) Complaint! (2021) What’s The Use (2019) Living a Feminist Life (2017) The Promise of Happiness (2010) Queer Phenomenology (2006) The Cultural Politics of Emotions (2004) Feministkilljoys.com Saranahmed.com Other References: Gay’s The Word bell hooks Audre Lorde Ama Ata Aidoo's Our Sister Killjoy Judith Butler Lauren Berlant Heidi Safia Mirza Audre Lorde’s “A Litany for Survival” Questions you should be able to respond to after listening: 1. Who or what is the feminist killjoy? 2. Why is it important that the killjoy is both within and outside of us? 3. What does Sara say about the role of poetry in her work? Which poet and thinker does she reference here? 4. What does Sara say about killjoy joy? Have you ever experienced killjoy joy? 5. Please read up on Sara’s work on happiness. How has happiness been instrumentalised against women and minoritised people? 6. Do you think you’re a feminist killjoy? Why or why not?

What's the relationship between feminist writing and feminist activism? What does it mean to be a feminist killjoy, and what can we learn from her? This month, we're joined by scholar and writer Sara Ahmed to answer these questions and more, as we talk about her brilliant latest book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook. In it, Sara shows how although the label ‘killjoy’ has often been used to dismiss feminism by claiming that it causes unhappiness, in fact, assuming the identity of the feminist killjoy is a path of liberation and change. We’ll also be talking more generally about the intersections of feminism and literature, the feminist writers who have inspired us, and thinking through what books can do when it comes to the continued struggle for gender equality. Also, very excitingly, O's memoir This Ragged Grace has been selected as the Bookshop.org book of the month for June! So, if you'd like to read it, they're offering all wonderful Literary Friction listeners free shipping and 10% off if you pre-order it from them at the following link, using the code Ragged10: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/this-ragged-grace-a-memoir-of-recovery-and-renewal-octavia-bright/7400323?ean=9781838857462 Recommendations on the theme, Feminism: Octavia: The Penguin Book of Feminist Writing, edited by Hannah Dawson Carrie: Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde General Recommendations: Octavia: One Small Voice by Santanu Battacharya Sara: Our Sister Killjoy by Ama Ata Aidoo Carrie: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson Find a list of all recommended books at: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/april-2023-feminism-with-sara-ahmed Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/litfriction Email us: litfriction@gmail.com Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction

No matter how much time you take to prep the nursery, baby-proof your home or reread “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” - nothing will ever truly prepare you for what's to come. In Ep. 29 of Season 2, we sit down with Sara Ahmed to talk about postpartum depression, the internal and external struggles of seeking help and how we can learn to love and appreciate our bodies. Sara dives into her pregnancy and post-pregnancy journeys and debunks some pretty common postpartum myths. The anxiety, the depression and the stigma that still surrounds mental health- the now mother-of-two outlines her path to getting help and the feedback she received from her community once she did. Sara also opens up about her use of antidepressants to help treat her postpartum depression and the reason she is no longer reluctant in taking the prescription. We end this episode discussing body positivity. Sara talks about how she put aside those negative thoughts she had of her body, and instead learned to love every inch of herself. Let’s stop waiting on our “ideal weight” in order to feel good about ourselves. It is women like Sara who are true trailblazers in the de-stigmatization of mental health. The more we open up about our struggles, the more empowered we feel, collectively. Enjoy and remember to follow us on Instagram: @unsweetenedandunfiltered Follow Sara on Instagram: @sugarlandsara Read Sara's Huffington Post article HERE If you or someone you know is suffering from Postpartum Depression here are some resources that may help: www.acog.org www.postpartum.net www.womenshealth.gov

Content warning for discussions of cancer and death. This episode is an absolute dream come true: I spent a full hour talking to Sara Ahmed about feminism. Can you believe it??? Our conversation focused on Sara’s most recent book, Living a Feminist Life (pictured in this photo!). We talked about public scholarship, practical versus theoretical approaches to feminism, finding … Continue reading Episode 3.28 Living a Feminist Life with Sara Ahmed

Episode 78 of #KidsDeserveIt with Sara Ahmed