Conference hopeful
by Vincent Ciccarello
Sara
Ahmed, who was raised in Adelaide but is now Professor in Race and
Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths University of London, sensed a
"moment of political hope" during her recent visit home.
She was a keynote speaker at the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association (ACRAWSA) conference convened by all three SA universities and hosted by UniSA in December, only weeks after the election of the Rudd Labor Government.
"There is optimism about some of the topics around asylum and detention centres, and recognition of Indigenous sovereignty," Prof Ahmed said.
"But I’ve also picked up an expectation or need for caution about what exactly is going to be opened up."
The ACRAWSA conference, Transforming Bodies, Nations and Knowledges was an excellent opportunity, she said, to be "critical of the present, and what it throws up, and to be responsive".
"It’s very rare to go to a conference where there’s been a real sense of energetic aliveness to try to understand and even describe what’s going on in the present," Prof Ahmed said.
"Because sometimes even description is very hard. I know from my own work on racism that it’s very hard to speak about racism and the ways in which it goes on without getting noticed. And the very act of bearing witness to that is complicated and hard."
Her keynote address, The Politics of Good Feeling, reflected her current study into notions of happiness through a critique of the film, Bend It Like Beckham.
"I’ve always been in interested in how happiness as an idea circulates in our culture as a way of making something good - happy marriages, the happy family - certain social forms become seen as what promises happiness."
Conference committee member, Dr Kathleen Connellan from UniSA’s South Australian School of Art said Prof Ahmed’s address "epitomised seriousness and fun".
"Delegates seemed to hang on Sara’s every word as she manoeuvred her way through a presentation with movie clips and captivating visuals, all balanced with deep and reflective research on a subject that is at once personal and political," Dr Connellan said.
The conference attracted more than 100 delegates from as far afield as Canada, Europe and the UK, as well as from all over Australia.