Reading Sara Ahmed

Quilting Points returns for a sixth year with a new focus on Sara Ahmed.

We’re delighted to announce the return of Quilting Points, an interdisciplinary, critical and cultural reading group and seminar series at the University of Leeds.

This year we'll be facilitating a year-long discussion on the work of Sara Ahmed, one of the most prolific and influential contemporary thinkers currently working in the UK. Examining her monographs, essays and blog entries we'll look at how Ahmed has shaped the fields of postcolonial studies, feminism, queer theory, ethic studies and critical race theory. As an independent scholar and writer who scrutinises the operations of power in every day life, as well as institutions like the university, Ahmed's critical and intellectual range only looks set to widen in the future. As a group, we're looking forward to discussing and reading Ahmed while her critical project is still ongoing and we welcome individuals from across the university to join us for any of our sessions.

During our first term we'll be discussing how bodies and persons are at the heart of Ahmed’s corpus, appearing in her arguments through figures such as 'the alien', 'the willful subject', 'the feminist killjoy' and 'the stranger'. Considering these in relation to both Ahmed's oeuvre and the work of other critical thinkers, we'll look at how these figures allow us to register and critique our contemporary moment and particularly how they respond to the mantra that 'the personal is political'.

We'll be beginning with a first session on Tuesday 3rd October on 'The Stranger'. Researchers from across disciplines are encouraged to attend. Updates to follow.