
Ever wondered how complaints in academia are dealt with?
Together with the Diversity & Inclusion Office, the Jan van Eyck Academie, and the Centre for Gender and Diversity, the Maastricht Young Academy is organising a series of book club meetings on Sarah Ahmed’s “Complaint!”
Stay for lunch time discussions (food provided) and get a free copy of the book!
When: starting 14 December, from 12.30 – 14.00
Where: Jan van Eyck Academie
Register here.
This book club is open to all UM students and employees (this activity may count towards your CPD hours), as well as to participants and staff members of the Jan van Eyck Academie.
Registration is open now and will be on a first come, first served basis.
Excerpts from Ahmed’s book will be discussed during lunch time (food will be provided) in a series of three consecutive sessions: 14 December 2022, 1 March 2023, and 10 May 2023.
About the book:
“In Complaint! Sara Ahmed examines what we can learn about power from those who complain about abuses of power [in higher education and research]. Drawing on oral and written testimonies from academics and students who have made complaints about harassment, bullying, and unequal working conditions at universities, Ahmed explores the gap between what is supposed to happen when complaints are made and what actually happens.
To make complaints within institutions is to learn how they work and for whom they work: complaint as feminist pedagogy. Ahmed explores how complaints are made behind closed doors and how doors are often closed on those who complain. To open these doors – to get complaints through, keep them going, or keep them alive – Ahmed emphasises, requires forming new kinds of collectives.
This book offers a systematic analysis of the methods used to stop complaints and a powerful and poetic meditation on what complaints can be used to do. Following a long lineage of Black feminist and feminist of color critiques of the university, Ahmed delivers a timely consideration of how institutional change becomes possible and why it is necessary.”