Diversity, Equity, Inclusion: Intersectionality

A 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Title Intersectionality intervenes in the field of intersectionality studies: the integrative examination of the effects of racial, gendered, and class power on people's lives. While "intersectionality" circulates as a buzzword, Anna Carastathis joins other critical voices to urge a more careful reading. Challenging the narratives of arrival that surround it, Carastathis argues that intersectionality is a horizon, illuminating ways of thinking that have yet to be realized; consequently, calls to "go beyond" intersectionality are premature. A provisional interpretation of intersectionality can disorient habits of essentialism, categorial purity, and prototypicality and overcome dynamics of segregation and subordination in political movements. Through a close reading of critical race theorist Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw's germinal texts, published more than twenty-five years ago, Carastathis urges analytic clarity, contextual rigor, and a politicized, historicized understanding of this widely traveling concept. Intersectionality's roots in social justice movements and critical intellectual projects--specifically Black feminism--must be retraced and synthesized with a decolonial analysis so its radical potential to actualize coalitions can be enacted.    

In Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory Patricia Hill Collins offers a set of analytical tools for those wishing to develop intersectionality's capability to theorize social inequality in ways that would facilitate social change. While intersectionality helps shed light on contemporary social issues, Collins notes that it has yet to reach its full potential as a critical social theory. She contends that for intersectionality to fully realize its power, its practitioners must critically reflect on its assumptions, epistemologies, and methods. She places intersectionality in dialog with several theoretical traditions--from the Frankfurt school to black feminist thought--to sharpen its definition and foreground its singular critical purchase, thereby providing a capacious interrogation into intersectionality's potential to reshape the world.

Volume 37 explores the question, what can the emerging discipline of intersectionality studies contribute to our quest to understand and analyze social movements, conflict and change? This collection is part of a continued broadening and deepening of the theoretical contributions of intersectional analysis in understanding social structures and human practices. It lends analytical eye to questions of how race, class, and gender shape strategy and experience in social change processes. It also stretches to include thinking about how analysis of age, religion, or sexual identity can influence the model. The papers contribute to our growing understanding of ways to use the social power analysis unique to the intersectional lens to offer new perspectives on well-researched questions such as group identity development in conflict, coalition organizing, and movement resonance. Through the intersectional lens questions often ignored and populations traditionally marginalized become the heart of the analysis. Additionally, the volume also considers how surveillance and information sharing shape the complex relationship between democratic freedoms and hegemonic governmental systems.

Intersectionality is a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989. A scholar of law, critical race theory, and Black feminist thought, Crenshaw used intersectionality to explain the experiences of Black women who - because of the intersections of race, gender, and class - are exposed to exponential forms of marginalization and oppression. Intersectionality & Higher Education documents and expands upon Crenshaw's ideas within the context of U.S. higher education. The text includes theoretical and conceptual chapters on intersectionality; empirical research using intersectionality frameworks; and chapters focusing on intersectional practices. The volume may prove beneficial for graduate programs in ethnic studies, higher education, sociology, student affairs, and women and gender studies alike.

In urban education, “urban” is a floating signifier that is imbued with meaning, positive or negative by its users. “Urban” can be used to refer to both the geographical context of a city and a sense of “less than,” most often in relation to race and/or socioeconomic status (Watson, 2011). For Noblit and Pink (2007), “Urban, rather, is a generalization as much about geography as it is about the idea that urban centers have problems: problems of too many people, too much poverty, too much crime and violence, and ultimately, too little hope” (p. xv). Recently, urban education scholars such as Anyon (2005), Pink and Noblit (2007), Blanchett, Klinger and Harry (2009), and Lipman (2013) have elucidated the social construction of oppression and privilege for urban students, teachers, schools, families, and communities using intersectionality theories. Building on their work, we see the need for an edited collection that would look across the different realms of urban education—theorizing identity markers in urban education, education in urban schools and communities, thinking intersectionally in teacher education & higher education, educational policies & urban spaces—seeking to better understand each topic using an intersectional lens. Such a collection might serve to conceptually frame or provide methodological tools, or act as a reference point for scholars and educators who are trying to address urban educational issues in light of identities and power. Secondly, we argue that education questions and/or problems beg to be conceptualized and analyzed through more than one identity axis. Policies and practices that do not take into account urban students’ intertwining identity markers risk reproducing patterns of privilege and oppression, perpetuating stereotypes, and failing at the task we care most deeply about: supporting all students’ learning across a holistic range of academic, personal, and justiceoriented outcomes.

Can educational policies and practices address the social justice issues faced in urban schools and communities today? We argue that doing intersectional research and implementing educational policies and practices guided by these frameworks can help improve the “fit.” Particular attention needs to be paid to intersectionality as a lens for educational theory, policy, and practice. As urban educators we would be wise to consider the intertwining of these identity axes in order to better analyze educational issues and engage in teaching, learning, research, and policymaking that are better tuned to the needs of diverse students, families, and communities.

Though colleges and universities are arguably paying more attention to diversity and inclusion than ever before, to what extent do their efforts result in more socially just campuses? Intersectionality and Higher Education examines how race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, sexual orientation, age, disability, nationality, and other identities connect to produce intersected campus experiences. Contributors look at both the individual and institutional perspectives on issues like campus climate, race, class, and gender disparities, LGBTQ student experiences, undergraduate versus graduate students, faculty and staff from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, students with disabilities, undocumented students, and the intersections of two or more of these topics. Taken together, this volume presents an evidence-backed vision of how the twenty-first century higher education landscape should evolve in order to meaningfully support all participants, reduce marginalization, and reach for equity and equality.

The purpose of this work is to advance understanding of intersectional theory and its application to research in education. The scholars whose work appear in this volume utilize intersectional theory and research methods to work in fields and disciplines such as Education, Sociology, Women's Studies, Africana Studies, Human Development, Higher Education Administration, Leadership Studies, and Justice Studies. The book illustrates how intersectional theory can be used in both quantitative and qualitative education research on college student access and success, faculty satisfaction and professional development, and K-12 educational issues such as high school dropouts and bullying. This book is unique, as no other book ties intersectionality to the research process. Key Features: * Readers will learn the basic tenets of intersectionality and how it can be useful in education research. * Readers will learn how intersectionality can be used to analyze both quantitative (large scale survey) and qualitative (interview, participant observation, and ethnographic) data. * Lastly, readers will learn how intersectionality can be particularly useful in examining the experiences of diverse groups of students attending elementary schools, high schools, colleges and universities, and faculty working at post-secondary institutions. Intersectionality is increasingly being used in research and education. This theory holds great promise in exploring students' experiences in terms of access, success, and outcomes for marginalized groups. In essence, application of the theory promotes critical complex thinking regarding the intersectionality of race, class, and gender and their outcomes.

Coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s, intersectionality makes the case that dimensions of identity, such as gender and race, cannot be understood in isolation from each other because they work together to shape lived experience. As digital humanities has expanded in scope and content, questions of how to negotiate the overlapping influences of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, and other dimensions that shape data, archives, and methodologies have come to the fore. Taking up these concerns, the authors in this volume explore their effects on the methodological, political, and ethical practices of digital humanities. Essays examine intersectionality from a range of positions: the influence of overlapping identities on scholars within the digital humanities community; how the fields in which they work are subject to competing tensions created by intersecting power structures within digital humanities and academia; and the methodological possibilities and scholarly potential for intersectionality as a framing theory in digital humanities scholarship.

In "Domestic Violence: Intersectionality and Culturally Competent Practice," experts working with twelve unique groups of domestic abuse survivors provide the latest research on their populations and use a case study approach to demonstrate culturally sensitive intervention strategies. Chapters focus on African Americans, Native Americans, Latinas, Asian and Pacific Island communities, persons with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, women in later life, LGBT survivors, and military families. They address domestic violence in rural environments and among teens, as well as the role of religion in shaping attitudes and behavior. Lettie L. Lockhart and Fran S. Danis are editors of the Council of Social Work Education's popular teaching modules on domestic violence and founding co-chairs of the CSWE symposium on violence against women and children. In their introduction, they provide a thorough overview of intersectionality, culturally competent practice, and domestic violence and basic practice strategies, such as universal screening, risk assessment, and safety planning. They follow with collaborative chapters on specific populations demonstrating the value of generalist social work practice, including developing respectful relationships that define issues from the survivor's perspective; collecting and assessing data; setting goals and contracting; identifying culturally specific interventions; implementing culturally appropriate courses of action; participating in community-level strategies; and advocating for improved policies and funding at local, state, and federal levels. Featuring resources applicable to both practitioners and clients, Domestic Violence forms an effective tool for analysis and action.