A Border Passage Coming of Age Quotes

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Quote #10

For what I was living and passively learning was exactly the kind of experience that would fuel the intellectual revolution that would come, particularly in the American academic world, as those from the margins—blacks, women, people from other cultures and from minority cultures in the West—understood their exclusion from the academic curriculum and set to work to make their own perspectives and histories academically visible. (212)

Ahmed speaks of personal maturation at different moments in her personal and professional life. In her academic career, she's had to work hard to fit into a predominantly white, male, Western milieu. This means learning to understand what is important to them, to learn the materials that they've already mastered—and to cast aside her own perspective and concerns.

But slowly, she begins to question this. When others on the margins begin to do the same, the center begins to shift. It's an exciting moment in history, but it's even more crucial for Ahmed, who will find herself on the leading edge of a new academic curriculum and experience.