Even since the start of this year, two major new books have been published with the single-word title Intersectionality. One by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge has no subtitle and offers an overview of the field. The other, by Ange-Marie Hancock, is subtitled 鈥渁n intellectual history鈥�.

One of the was published in 1991 by Kimberle Crenshaw, now a professor at both the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School. 鈥淢apping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color鈥� argued that 鈥渢he violence that many women face is often shaped by other dimensions of their identity, such as race and class鈥�, citing the case of immigrant women who were 鈥渨holly dependent on their husbands as their link to the world outside their homes鈥� and sometimes for 鈥渋nformation regarding their legal status鈥�.

This has notable implications for policy that is designed to address domestic violence. But Professor Crenshaw also claimed that 鈥渞acism as experienced by people of color who are of a particular gender 鈥� male 鈥� tend to determine the parameters of antiracist strategies, just as sexism as experienced by women who are of a particular race 鈥� white 鈥� tends to ground the women鈥檚 movement鈥�. Only an intersectional approach can address the double bind of those suffering at the sharp end of both racism and sexism, she argued.

Although much writing about intersectionality has continued to focus on the interaction between race and gender, Professor Collins and Professor Bilge interpret its 鈥渃ore insight鈥� as being that 鈥渕ajor axes of social divisions in a given society, for example, race, class, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and age operate not as discrete and mutually exclusive entities, but build on each other and work together鈥�.

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Yet they also cite the views of 鈥渢wo young white British cyberfeminists鈥� that terms such as 鈥渋ntersectionality鈥� end up alienating otherwise sympathetic people by 鈥渃ausing disagreements between those armed with an MA in Gender Studies and a large vocabulary to match, and those without鈥�.

So how do scholars working in the field respond to such claims? Can intersectional approaches be used to improve policymaking? And where should intersectionality be located within the academy?

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Ange-Marie Hancock, associate professor of political science and gender studies at the University of Southern California, is dismissive of the idea that terms such as 鈥�intersectionality鈥� are alienating and academic (in the pejorative sense of the word), since 鈥渋ntersectionality-like thought鈥� has been around for almost two centuries under 鈥渁 variety of names that ordinary women gave it鈥�.

Yet she sees it now as providing 鈥渁 compelling analytical framework鈥� and argues that it should 鈥渇ollow a path like neuroscience 鈥� [as] a fundamentally interdisciplinary specialty that eventually becomes a department or disciplinary field in its own right鈥�.

For Sirma Bilge, professor of sociology at the University of Montreal, the question of whether intersectionality should be a distinct interdisciplinary field or a strand within existing disciplines such as sociology 鈥渘eeds to be tied to the question of who benefits from its being located in this or that place within the university structures.

"The academy is full of examples of 鈥榤inority鈥� studies programmes that do not have a single professor of minority background鈥he issue for me is less where it is located than how it is located, whether or not by its location it can change the terms of the debate (how knowledge is produced, decentring dominant ways of doing sociology, or doing gender/women studies), rather than being yet another topic within the diversity portfolio of a given department.鈥�

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'Comfortable with complexity'

Angelia Wilson, professor of politics at the University of Manchester, is the editor of a book called Situating Intersectionality: Politics, Policy, and Power. She sees intersectionality as a perspective that 鈥済ives us the possibility to be comfortable with complexity鈥�, and tries to 鈥渢hink across racial and cultural divides鈥� even when looking at the impact of policy on gays and lesbians. Her book Why Europe Is Lesbian and Gay Friendly (and Why America Never Will Be), for example, drills down below broad pan-continental factors such as the European Court of Justice and pressure from activists to focus instead, for example, on聽religious traditions and 鈥渢he understanding of welfare鈥� in different countries. 聽

In formulating policies designed to secure equal treatment for all citizens, Professor Wilson also sees an essential role for intersectional analyses looking at how initiatives 鈥渨ork in people鈥檚 actual lives. The point is to keep the focus on power, and our potential to affect different lives in different ways.鈥�

Professor Hancock recalls an incident in her own life, not long after 9/11, when she was stared at in the grocery store and her mother asked, 鈥淥h, do you think it was because they think you are Arab, or do you think it is just because you鈥檙e a professional woman of colour?鈥�

Yet her response to such questions, she said, is 鈥渄oes it matter whether it is due to a singular or a multiple identity?聽The point, the thing that needed to be addressed, was the experience of the microaggression. Improving our ability to really examine the mechanisms of prejudice, stereotyping and prejudice does not, in my mind, logically require us to conceptualise the world as a place to be decomposed into its parts.鈥�

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It is precisely here, Professor Hancock believes, that intersectionality can help to spur a major intellectual transformation: 鈥淲e still think in decomposition mode (that is, systems or people are the sum of their mutually distinct parts) rather than thinking in a more holographic mode (which requires us to grapple with how we might engage with the fundamental idea that we aren鈥檛 our gender Monday-Wednesday-Friday and our race/ethnicity Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday).

"One of intersectionality鈥檚 overlooked intellectual projects requires us to think of individuals, peoples and systems as if they were holograms 鈥� meaning they cannot be decomposed into their 鈥榚thnic part鈥� versus their 鈥榞ender part鈥� versus their 鈥榗lass part鈥�.鈥�

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The implications of this, Professor Hancock acknowledges, require 鈥渁cademics and activists to think very differently鈥�, and that is precisely why intersectionality is 鈥渂oth the most exciting and the most misunderstood theory in the world right now鈥�.

matthew.reisz@tesglobal.com