Sara Ahmed

A researcher and writer, she specialises in feminism, queer theory, and postcolonial criticism. In her writings she uses the tools of feminist theory to analyse mechanisms of oppression and discrimination in everyday life and institutional contexts. Confronting these situations, Ahmed has conceived the figure of the feminist killjoy, with whom she identifies, the woman who never tires of raising her voice against the forms of discrimination, vexation and oppression hiding behind the status quo. Her books include Differences that Matter: Feminist Theory and Postmodernism (Cambridge University Press, 1999), The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Routledge, 2004), and Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, Objects, Others (Duke University Press, 2006). Her latest book, Living a Feminist Life, has been translated into Spanish (Vivir una vida feminist, Bellaterra, 2018) and an earlier work, The Promise of Happiness, will appear in Spanish this year (La promesa de la felicidad, Caja Negra Editora, 2019). Until 2016, Ahmed was head of the Centre for Feminist Research (CFR) at Goldsmiths College (University of London) but she resigned from her post in protest over the university’s failure to address complaints of sexual harassment. However, as a result of this situation, she is presently studying the complaints presented in the university.