What is Intersectionality?
“Intersectionality refers to the social, economic and political ways in which identity-based systems of oppression and privilege connect, overlap and influence one another” (Bell, 2016).
The term “intersectionality” was created by professor and legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 “to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics ‘intersect’ with one another and overlap” (Coaston, 2019).
Read
“The intersectionality wars” (Coaston, 2019)
“What’s intersectionality? Let these scholars explain the theory and its history” (Coleman, 2019)
“Kimberlé Crenshaw on intersectionality, more than two decades later” (News from Columbia Law, 2017)
Watch/Listen
Podcast: Intersectionality Matters! with Kimberlé Crenshaw (African American Policy Forum, 2018-2022)
Webinar Recording: “Intersectional counternarratives of Black students and belonging in private schools” (Martin, 2022)
Video: “Intersectionality 101” (Learning for Justice, 2016)
Video: “The urgency of intersectionality” (Crenshaw, 2016)
Video: #RaceAnd Series (Race Forward, 2016)
ACT
Visit NWEA for for “5 tips for developing intersectionality practices and awareness in your classroom” (Krastel, 2021)
Visit ASCD’s website for steps you can take to support students’ intersectional identities in your school (Eager, 2019)
Visit Advocates for Youth to learn about and take action on issues of racial justice and intersectionality.
Teach
“Intersectionality reader” (Polleck, 2022)
“Teaching about intersectionality” (Educators 4 Social Change)
“Toolkit for ‘Teaching at the intersections’” (Learning for Justice, 2016)
“The spectrum activity, questions of identity” (University of Michigan, 2022)
“Intersectionality” Lesson Plan (Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit)
“Intersectionality Lesson Plan” (Global Feminisms Project)
Learn
Intersectionality in education: Toward more equitable policy, research, and practice (Cavendish & Samson, 2021)
“Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black Feminist critique of anti-discrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics” (Crenshaw, 1989)
“Resources on intersectionality” (The George Washington University)
“Intersectional fiction” (Kitchener Public Library, 2021)