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<TITLE>Sara Ahmed Lecture USyd 5pm Sep 8 </TITLE>
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<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><BR>
</SPAN><FONT SIZE="6"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:21.0px'><B>The Department of Gender and Cultural Studies <BR>
& the SOPHI Gender and Modernity Group presents<BR>
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Sara Ahmed<BR>
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Professor in Race and Cultural Studies<BR>
Goldsmiths, University of London<BR>
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</SPAN></FONT><FONT SIZE="6"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:21.0px'><B>Killing Joy: Feminism and the History of Happiness.<BR>
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5-6.30pm, Tuesday September 8<BR>
Oriental Room S204, University of Sydney<BR>
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<B>Abstract<BR>
</B>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 people’s 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.<BR>
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Enquiries: mgregg@usyd.edu.au<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Dr. Melissa Gregg<BR>
Lecturer in Gender and Cultural Studies<BR>
Main Quadrangle Building A14<BR>
University of Sydney NSW 2006<BR>
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p 02 9351 3657 | m 0408 599 359 | e mel.gregg@usyd.edu.au<BR>
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<a href="http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/gcs/staff/profiles/mgregg.shtml">http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/gcs/staff/profiles/mgregg.shtml</a><BR>
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Enrol in our NEW Master of Cultural Studies: <BR>
<FONT COLOR="#0000FF"><U><a href="http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/gcs/postgrad/coursework.shtml">http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/gcs/postgrad/coursework.shtml</a></U></FONT> <BR>
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