Inaugural Lecture: The Cultural Politics of Happiness May 29, 2007

Tuesday 29 May 2007, 5.30pm - 6.30pm
Ian Gulland Lecture Theatre, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross,
London SE14 6NW
Admission: FREE but book your place.

Professor of Race and Cultural Studies, Sara Ahmed, will deliver her inaugural Lecture titled: 'The Cultural Politics of Happiness'. The Lecture will be introduced by the Warden of Goldsmiths, Professor Geoffrey Crossick, followed by a reception.

Admission free. All welcome. Please contact Matthew Grew 020 7919 7033 for further information and to book your place. Visit www.goldsmiths.ac.uk for map and travel information.

Lecture summary:
We have witnessed a turn to happiness in academic scholarship, the media and policy. Much of this literature assumes that happiness is good; that happiness can be known and measured; and that the task of government is to maximise happiness. This lecture offers a different perspective by considering happiness as a cultural politics, asking not 'what is happiness?', but 'what does happiness do?' and 'how does happiness get associated with some life choices and not others?' Professor Ahmed analyses how happiness functions as a promise: the promise that if you do this, or if you have that, then happiness will follow. Taking up three figures as case studies - the feminist kill-joy, the unhappy queer and the melancholic migrant - the lecture explores how happiness is distributed, and how specific groups are seen as 'getting in the way' of its promise.

Official Website: http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/press-releases/pressrelease.php?releaseID=549