It asks what follows when we make our desires and even our own happiness conditional on the happiness of others: “I just want you to be happy”; “I’m happy if you’re happy.” Combining philosophy and feminist cultural studies, Sara Ahmed reveals the affective and moral work performed by the “happiness duty,” the expectation that we will be made happy by taking part in that which is deemed good, and that by being happy ourselves, we will make others happy. Ahmed maintains that happiness is a promise that directs us toward certain life choices and away from others. Happiness is promised to those willing to live their lives in the right way.Ahmed draws on the intellectual history of happiness, from classical accounts of ethics as the good life, through seventeenth-century writings on affect and the passions, eighteenth-century debates on virtue and education, and nineteenth-century utilitarianism. She engages with feminist, antiracist, and queer critics who have shown how happiness is used to justify social oppression, and how challenging oppression causes unhappiness. Reading novels and films including Mrs. Dalloway, The Well of Loneliness, Bend It Like Beckham, and Children of Men, Ahmed considers the plight of the figures who challenge and are challenged by the attribution of happiness to particular objects or social ideals: the feminist killjoy, the unhappy queer, the angry black woman, and the melancholic migrant. Through her readings she raises critical questions about the moral order imposed by the injunction to be happy.

    Contributors from a wide range of disciplines present a focused engagement with the critical, philosophical, and political dimensions of sex and nature. These discussions are particularly relevant to current debates in many disciplines, including environmental studies, queer theory, critical race theory, philosophy, literary criticism, and politics. As a whole, Queer Ecologies stands as a powerful corrective to views that equate "natural" with "straight" while "queer" is held to be against nature.

    Literary Nonfiction. Art. African American Studies. Asian American Studies. Native American Studies. This anthology of poetry, spoken word, fiction, creative nonfiction, spoken word texts, as well as black and white artwork and photography, explores the question of how mixed-race women in North America identify in the twenty-first century. Contributions engage, document, and/or explore the experiences of being mixed-race, by placing interraciality as the center, rather than periphery, of analysis.

    Taking stock of this transformative paradigm, The Intersectional Approach guides new and established researchers to engage in a critical reflection about the broad adoption of intersectionality that constitutes what the editors call a new "social literacy" for scholars.In eighteen essays, contributors examine various topics of interest to students and researchers from a feminist perspective as well as through their respective disciplines, looking specifically at gender inequalities related to globalization, health, motherhood, sexuality, body image, and aging. Together, these essays provide a critical overview of the paradigm, highlight new theoretical and methodological advances, and make a strong case for the continued use of the intersectional approach both within the borders of women's and gender studies and beyond.Contributors: Lidia Anchisi, Gettysburg CollegeNaomi Andre, University of MichiganJean Ait Belkhir, Southern University at New OrleansMichele Tracy Berger, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillKia Lilly Caldwell, University of North Carolina at Chapel HillElizabeth R. Cole, University of MichiganKimberle Crenshaw, University of California, Los AngelesBonnie Thornton Dill, University of MarylandMichelle Fine, Graduate Center, City University of New YorkJennifer Fish, Old Dominion UniversityMako Fitts, Seattle UniversityKathleen Guidroz, Mount St. Mary's UniversityIvette Guzman-Zavala, Lebanon Valley CollegeKaaren Haldeman, Durham, North CarolinaCatherine E. Harnois, Wake Forest UniversityAnaLouise Keating, Texas Woman's UniversityRachel E. Luft, University of New OrleansGary K. Perry, Seattle UniversityJennifer Rothchild, University of Minnesota, MorrisAnn Russo, DePaul UniversityNatalie J. Sabik, University of Michigan Jessica Holden Sherwood, University of Rhode IslandYvette Taylor, University of Newcastle, United Kingdom Nira Yuval-Davis, University of East LondonThe contributors are Lidia Anchisi, Naomi Andre, Jean Ait Belkhir, Michele Tracy Berger, Kia Lilly Caldwell, Elizabeth R. Cole, Kimberle Crenshaw, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Michelle Fine, Jennifer Fish, Mako Fitts, Kathleen Guidroz, Ivette Guzman-Zavala, Kaaren Haldeman, Catherine E. Harnois, AnaLouise Keating, Rachel E. Luft, Gary K. Perry, Jennifer Rothchild, Ann Russo, Natalie J. Sabik, Jessica Holden Sherwood, Yvette Taylor, and Nira Yuval-Davis. The editors are Michele Tracy Berger and Kathleen Guidroz.

    is a compilation of personal essays by lesbian teachers and students who speak about sexual identity and its influence on the teaching and learning process. The mission of this anthology is to provide, through personal stories, an analysis of how sexuality - specifically, how identifying as a queer woman - can affect classroom dynamics in high school and university settings. Despite a perceived cultural acceptance of the GLBTQ community in the media, many gays and lesbians still suffer from their own internalized homophobia, as well as the homophobia of the outside world. These twenty-six essays give readers the opportunity to recognize, connect with, and critically think about the personal and political challenges and triumphs that queer women, whether out of the closet or not, have experienced in the classroom and beyond.

    Women's Studies. Religion. WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY: CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST APPROACHES TO JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM AND GODDESS WORSHIP comes directly out of women's grassroots efforts to understand and transform their spiritual traditions. It is a comprehensive account of the discussions, arguments, perspectives and approaches of contemporary women in Canada toward spirituality and the monotheistic religions. The author presents a concise history of each religion, discusses normative practices and focuses on the roles, rituals and rights of contemporary women as they accommodate to and deal with their respective religions. WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY deals with women's encounters with spirituality within the framework of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and outside of this framework within the new religions of contemporary Goddess worship. An updated, and revised edition of Stuckey's successful 1998 book, Feminist Spirituality: An Introduction to Feminist Theology in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Feminist Goddess Worship, this book will be useful to anyone unfamiliar with the work of feminists within any or all of the three monotheistic traditions that have been so crucial to shaping western attitudes to and treatment of women.

    Delany, Extravagant Abjection asks: If we're racialized through domination and abjection, what is the political, personal, and psychological potential in racialization-through-abjection? Using the figure of male rape as a lens through which to examine this question, Scott argues that blackness in relation to abjection endows its inheritors with a form of counter-intuitive power--indeed, what can be thought of as a revised notion of black power. This power is found at the point at which ego, identity, body, race, and nation seem to reveal themselves as utterly penetrated and compromised, without defensible boundary. Yet in Extravagant Abjection, "power" assumes an unexpected and paradoxical form.In arguing that blackness endows its inheritors with a surprising form of counter-intuitive power--as a resource for the political present--found at the very point of violation, Extravagant Abjection enriches our understanding of the construction of black male identity.