Intersectionality in Higher Education

Great Minds, Brave Spaces
February 13, 2018

Charlana Simmons, former Director of Multicultural Affairs, will focus on intersectionality in higher education. Charlana will focus on introducing the concept of intersectionality, its history, its intended uses, and ways it can be operationalized to make an impact in higher education. Intersectionality, a theory developed by Kimberlé Crenshaw, a critical legal scholar, was developed to provide a language to help understand and describe the experiences of Black women in the legal arena. Rooted in critical race theory, intersectionality was created as a theory to highlight the ways in which being simultaneously Black and woman amplify the oppressive forces that exist at the nexus of race and gender.
The session will focus on the text: Intersectionality in Higher Education: Theory, Research, and Praxis, the authors attempt to adapt this lens to the higher education arena to bring greater understanding to the multiple identity frames that students bring to the college setting, specifically students who have identity frames that operate as sites of oppression. The goal of hosting this session is to broaden the theoretical frameworks with which we understand the student experience and work to dismantle a system of oppression that has become invisible and seemingly innocuous. The symptoms of a system of oppression in higher education, if left untreated, have far reaching negative consequences for the antiracist work.