THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO WEDNESDAY 3RD JULY

Join QMSU to ‘Decolonise Your Bookshelf’! 

We will be reading Complaint by Sara Ahmed from 2-4pm in St Benet's Chaplaincy (opposite People's Palace at Mile End). 

First 10 attendees will receive a free copy!

We invite you to join us for lively discussion and engaging debates. Whether you’re looking to expand your reading list, connect with fellow book lovers or engage in stimulating conversation, our book club is the perfect opportunity to explore a diverse range of genres and works by underrepresented voices.  

This book club has been organised to discuss the work from scratch so we will be reading some key passages on the day to guide discussion. You can also purchase your own copy or access a free online version if you wish to do so 

In Complaint! Sara Ahmed examines what we can learn about power from those who complain about abuses of power. 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 emphasizes, 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.