During our first cross cohort session ‘Researching in your own institution’, with Dr Duna Sabri a colleague remarked that our discussion reminded them of the Sara Ahmed case when on the 30th May 2016 academic Sara Ahmed announced her resignation from her post at Goldsmiths on her feminist kill joys blog. Ahmed was protesting against what she claimed was a failure to address the problem of sexual harassment in the world of academia. I knew the high-profile case from reports in the newspaper and from the attention it rapidly gathered online – Ahmed quickly became a hero to many of us. Despite being respectful and in awe of Ahmed’s work and bravery, prior to this course I had not read much, if indeed any of Ahmed’s writing – but I was very pleased to see her name at the top of the final slide under ‘Relevant further reading’.
‘To be heard as complaining is not to be heard. To hear someone as complaining is an effective way of dismissing someone’ (Ahmed, 2021, p.1).
Significantly at the time of writing this I had recently been chairing two Course Committee meetings, one undergraduate and one postgraduate – the UAL terms of reference for Course committees cites the committee as providing ‘a forum for students to feedback on their academic experience’. Unfortunately, as a Course Leader within these committees it can become too easy to hear complaints rather than feedback especially when it becomes about issues such as recycling bins or heating, items which can feel out with the control of the Course Leader and less important than academic content for instance. In the introductory pages of Complaint! Ahmed writes ‘Those deemed tiresome complainers have something to teach us about complaint, to teach us about the politics of how some are received, to teach us what it takes to refuse a message about who is important, what is important’ (Ahmed, 2021, p.2). Not only should student feedback never be dismissed as complaints or be ranked in importance but at this time of climate emergency and in line with UAL’s Climate Action Plan to ‘teach students to develop sustainable practices’ (UAL, 2021) feedback on the lack of recycling bins and inadequately insulated buildings must be encouraged.
Ahmed. S (2021) Complaint! Duke University Press, Durham
UAL (2021) Climate Action Plan [Online] [Accessed 18 February 2022]Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/about-ual/climate-action-plan