Hope and manifestos: Reading Ahmed with Ahmed

Kira Skovbo Moser og Niclas Nørby Jochumsen Hundahl

Feminist cultural theorist Sara Ahmed operates with two main lines of inquiry: First, the theoretical tracing of emotions and emotionally charged words and how they come to ‘work’ on and through us. And second, the feminist approach of asking how we can reinterpret or work differently with these words and workings, theoretically and politically. 

This talk will use Ahmeds own approach of (re)tracing, focusing on two particular words: Hope and manifestos.

Hope continuously appears in Ahmeds writing in a double position: As an ‘object’ of study, termed an ”attachment” or “investment”, as well as a position or stance she adopts and urges us to adopt. Tracing how hope flows and evolves through her works allows for an understanding of how hope can function.

Next, we investigate how the manifesto works through a reading of ’A Killjoy Manifesto’ (2017). The talk will present reflections on what sticks to the manifesto (emotions, affects, histories, ideas); how the manifesto can be a willful subject; and what the manifesto ‘comes up against’ in manifesting itself.

BIO

Kira Skovbo Moser is a PhD Fellow in Rhetoric at Aarhus University. Her PhD-project is exploring the processes of manifesto-making and what these processes do to the participants involved. Her research is informed by traditional and feminist manifesto theory in combination with participatory action research and collaborations, such as the Danish Arts Foundation funded project “Det Vi Mener” with MidtVest Pigekor. She has published on feminist manifestos in Women, Gender & Research and has taught manifesto-making across various universities and folk high schools in Denmark. She is currently co-editing a special issue of Rhetorica Scandinavica on manifestos.

Niclas Nørby Jochumsen Hundahl is a Carlsberg PhD Fellow in Musicology at Aarhus University. His PhD-project investigates how Danish pop artists employed hope as a strategy in the years following COVID-19. Focusing on three male musicians, he explores how hope became a central element in negotiating masculinity, identity and music in Denmark in the 2020’ies. His research is informed by popular musicology, feminist cultural studies of emotion and philosophy. He is currently serving as the Danish delegate to the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

Æstetisk Seminar er tilrettelagt af Anette Vandsø og Niclas Nørby Jochumsen Hundahl, Institut for Kommunikation og Kultur, Aarhus Universitet.

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