Section: Topic 3 - Intersectionality: Uses and Abuses | POL361 - Gender and Politics - 2023/24

Select activity TOPIC 3 - OVERVIEW LECTURE: 9 FEBRUARY (WEEK 3) SE...
TOPIC 3 - Overview
Lecture: 9 February (week 3)
Seminar: 15-16 February (week 4)

Firelei Báez, Vessels of Geneaologies (2016). Acrylic, graphite, and ink on paper. You can read more about Báez's work here.

In this week's lecture, we consider how gender intersects with other identities such as race, age, ethnicity, class, sexuality and (dis)ability. We examine the history intersectionality, rooted in Black feminism, and consider its theoretical and methodological implications. We then explore why Black feminists and feminists of colour have expressed unease in the way intersectionality has “travelled” from the margins to the centre. To conclude, we consider contributions in affects studies as a way of recovering or exceeding intersectionality. By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
Explain the concept of intersectionality and its significance for gender and politics
Outline the history of intersectionality and its relation to Black feminism
Identify the opportunities opened up by intersectional research and also be aware of potential misuse
Understand the contribution of affects studies
Select activity Lecture Slides Topic 3

Lecture Slides Topic 3 File

These are the powerpoint slides for the lecture on topic 3 - Intersectionality: Uses and Abuses

5.9 MB
Select activity The urgency of intersectionality - TED talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw

The urgency of intersectionality - TED talk by Kimberlé Crenshaw URL
Select activity TOPIC 3 - Seminar Preparation PREPARATION FOR THE ...
TOPIC 3 - Seminar Preparation

Preparation for the seminar
1) Attend and take notes on the lecture.
2) Read and take notes on the following core reading:
Audre Lorde (1981) The Uses of Anger. Women's Studies Quarterly 9(3), pp. 7-10.
Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal forum 139, pp. 139-168.

3) Finally, feel free to also read and take notes on the following additional reading for the topic:
Gail Lewis (2013) Unsafe Travel: Experiencing Intersectionality and Feminist Displacements. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38(4), pp. 869-892.
Jennifer C. Nash (2013) Practicing love: Black feminism, love-politics, and post-intersectionality. Meridians 11(2), pp. 1-24.
Sara Ahmed (2014) “The Contingency of Pain,” in The Cultural Politics of Emotions (Second Edition). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 20-41.
Sara Salem (2018) Intersectionality and its discontents: Intersectionality as traveling theory. European Journal of Women's Studies, 25(4), pp. 403-418.

Seminar discussion (Alaya's groups) / See Student Handout document
For additional information on how an intersectional toolkit is now mobilised by organisations and movements, see the examples below from UN Women and Young Friends of Earth Europe.
Select activity Week 4 Seminar / Student Handout

Week 4 Seminar / Student Handout File

53.5 KB
Select activity Week 4 Seminar / Power Flower

Week 4 Seminar / Power Flower File

45.0 KB
Select activity Young Friends of the Earth Europe - UN Women - Toolkit for intersectional movement building

Young Friends of the Earth Europe - UN Women - Toolkit for intersectional movement building File

10.8 MB
Select activity UN Women - Intersectionality resource guide and toolkit

UN Women - Intersectionality resource guide and toolkit File

1.6 MB
Select activity JASS Just Power / Intersectionality Resources for movement building

JASS Just Power / Intersectionality Resources for movement building URL

JASS Just Power is a “community of practice” – a network of dedicated activists, scholars, and popular educators who shared political histories and a mission – and secondarily an organization committed to change the beliefs and structures that drive economic inequality, environmental destruction, and gender-based as well as political violence.
Select activity TOPIC 3 - Supplementary readingThere are many supp...

TOPIC 3 - Supplementary reading
There are many supplementary texts available for this topic. As ever, you are not expected to read everything, but might find these resources helpful in deepening your understanding of this course, other courses you are taking, or a POL318 research project related to these themes.
Combahee River Collective (1979; 1983) “The Combahee River Collective Statement,” in Barbara Smith (Ed.) Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, pp. 24-273.
Angela Davis (1981) Women, Race and Class. New York: Vintage Books.
Hazel Carby (1982) “White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood,” in Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (Eds.) The Empire Strikes Back: Race and Racism in 70s Britain. London: Hutchinson, pp. 212-235.
Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis (1983) Contextualizing Feminism: Gender, Ethnic and Class Divisions. Feminist Review 15, pp. 62-75
Patricia Hill Collins (1990; 2008) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Routledge Classics.
Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991) Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review 43(6), pp. 1241-1299.
Audre Lorde (1992) “Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Berkeley: Crossing Press, pp. 114-123.
Patricia Hill Collins (1993) Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of Analysis and Connection. Race, Sex & Class 1(1), pp. 25-45.
Avtar Brah and Ann Phoenix (2004) Ain’t I a woman: Revisiting intersectionality. Journal of International Women’s Studies 3, pp. 75–86.
Floya Anthias and Nira Yuval-Davis (2005) Racialized boundaries: Race, nation, gender, colour and class and the anti-racist struggle. London: Routledge. Print book available at QMUL Library.
Leslie McCall (2005) The Complexity of Intersectionality. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30(3), pp. 1771-1800.
Nira Yuval-Davis (2006) Intersectionality and feminist politics. European Journal of Women’s Studies 13(3), pp. 193–209.
Elisa Larkin Nascimento (2007) ‘Identity, Race and Gender,’ in The Sorcery of Color, Identity, Race and Gender in Brazil. Temple University Press, pp. 10-41.
Kathy Davis (2008) Intersectionality as buzzword: a sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory successful. Feminist Theory 9(1), pp. 67–85.
Jennifer C. Nash (2008) Re-Thinking Intersectionality. Feminist Review 89, pp. 1-15.
Judith Squires (2009) Intersecting Inequalities. International Feminist Journal of Politics 11(4), pp. 496-512.
Sirma Bilge (2010) Recent feminist outlooks on intersectionality. Diogenes 57(1), pp. 58–72.
Jennifer C. Nash (2011) Home Truths on Intersectionality. Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 23, pp. 445–70.
Nira Yuval-Davis (2011) The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. London: Sage Publications.
Carolyn Pedwell and Anne Whitehead (2012) Affecting feminism: Questions of feeling in feminist theory. Feminist Theory, 13(2) pp. 115–129.
Jasbir K. Puar (2012) ‘I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess: intersectionality, assemblage, and affective politics’. European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies.
Wendy G. Smooth (2013) "Intersectionality from theoretical framework to policy intervention," in Angelia R. Wilson (Ed.) Situating intersectionality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 11-41.
Gail Lewis (2013) Unsafe Travel: Experiencing Intersectionality and Feminist Displacements. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 38(4), pp. 869-892.
Benita Moolman (2013) Rethinking ‘masculinities in transition’ in South Africa considering the ‘intersectionality’ of race, class, and sexuality with gender. African Identities, 11(1), pp. 93-105.
Anna Carastathis (2014) The Concept of Intersectionality in Feminist Theory. Philosophy Compass 9, pp. 304–314.
Heidi Safia Mirza and Yasmin Gunaratnam (2014) ‘The branch on which I sit’: Reflections on black British feminism. Feminist Review 108(1), pp. 125-133.
Santa Cruz Feminist of Color Collective (2014) Building on “the Edge of Each Other's Battles”: A Feminist of Colour Multidimensional Lens. Hypatia, 29(1), pp. 23-40.
Anna Carastathis (2016) Intersectionality: Origins, contestations, horizons. University of Nebraska Press.
Sara Salem (2018) Intersectionality and its discontents: Intersectionality as traveling theory. European Journal of Women's Studies, 25(4), pp. 403-418.
Gail Lewis and Claire Hemmings (2019) ‘Where might we go if we dare’: moving beyond the ‘thick, suffocating fog of whiteness’ in feminism. Feminist Theory 20 (4), pp. 405-421.
Jennifer C. Nash (2019) Black feminism reimagined: After intersectionality. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Pamela Paxton, Melanie Hughes and Tiffany D. Barnes (2020) “Intersectionality and Difference,” in Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective (Fourth edition). London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

Module Convenor

Teaching Team

Topic 3 - Intersectionality: Uses and Abuses

Section outline

TOPIC 3 - Overview

TOPIC 3 - Overview

TOPIC 3 - Supplementary reading