On Being Included

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction. On Arrival 1
1. Institutional Life 19
2. The Language of Diversity 51
3. Equality and Performance Culture 83
4. Commitment as a Non-performative 113
5. Speaking about Racism 141
Conclusion. A Phenomenological Practice 173
Notes 191
References 221
Index 235

Sara Ahmed is Professor of Race and Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Her books include The Cultural Politics of Emotion; Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality; and Differences that Matter: Feminist Theory and Postmodernism.

"There are no other books of this rigor and calibre examining the institutional culture of diversity in higher education. Sara Ahmed not only offers a rigorous empirical study of how diversity operates in the real world; she also develops a brilliant theoretical framework exploring the affective reproduction of inequality. At the same time, as a black feminist, she draws on her own embodiment of difference and experience as a diversity practitioner." Heidi Safia Mirza, author of Race, Gender, and Educational Desire: Why Black Women Succeed and Fail "Just when you think everything that could possibly be said about diversity in higher education has been said, Sara Ahmed comes along with this startlingly original, deeply engaging ethnography of diversity work. On Being Included is an insightful, smart reflection on the embodied, profoundly political phenomenology of doing and performing diversity in predominantly white institutions. As Ahmed queers even the most mundane formulations of diversity, she creates one eureka moment after another. I could not put this book down. It is a must-read for everyone committed to antiracist, feminist work as key to institutional transformation in higher education." - Chandra Talpade Mohanty, author of Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity "Sara Ahmed's sensitive and respectful analysis of the complexities faced by diversity workers in higher education institutions arrives at a moment when we urgently need ways to rethink institutional dynamics and the animating effects of policy regimes and processes. This is a vital book: vital as a compass guiding the eye, heart, and mind to the knowledge that can emerge from the labor of institutional transformation, and vital in the sense of being life-giving to those involved in the process." - Gail Lewis, coauthor of Citizenship: Personal Lives and Social Policy