Intersectionality

Catalog description

Our course is designed to provide students with a critical examination of intersectionality, a term "coined" by Kimberlé Crenshaw to theorize the experiences of Black women in the U.S. Indeed, the intersectionality work we "know" today arose from, and was rooted in, Black women's activism, oppositional knowledge and resistance, and collective action. Yet, as some have recently outlined, the field of intersectional studies has developed in ways that mask that origin, neutralize, and limit the potential of intersectional action. Therefore, to truly understand intersectionality, we must emphasize the canonical works produced and practiced by Black women and women of color activists, academics, and practitioners, and we will center their work in our class. Our study is grounded in the understanding that intersectionality is a political intervention as much as a theoretical lens lived within the tradition(s) of social justice. Throughout, we will study how theory informs practice (a key feminist expectation) and also how both guide what we know our political world. Thus, students will learn to read and analyze intersectionality politically, through the lens of power, and from a social justice perspective.