Abstract
Intersectionality refers to the complex fact that every person occupies multiple social locations; examining race, class, gender, or sexuality independently cannot provide a full understanding of identity. Although many contemporary texts and professors include these various categories of analysis, they typically take them up separately, so that a course or text will address gender and race and sexuality in different chapters or sections. In Intersectional Pedagogy: Complicating Identity and Social Justice, Kim A. Case argues against this additive model and for more integrated understanding and teaching about how multiple identities interact. As she says, “intersectional theory calls for moving beyond multiculturalism, single-axis models, and additive approaches to oppression” (p. 6). To that end, she has compiled 11 essays that present: Intersectional Theory and Foundations in Part I, Intersectionality and Classroom Application in Part II, and Intersectional Pedagogy for Social Justice in Part III.
As a long-time professor of psychology and women’s studies, I found all of the sections very helpful, but a couple of the chapters in the Section II stood out. In “Undoing the Psychology of Gender: Intersectional Feminism and Social Science Pedagogy,” Patrick R. Grzanka points out that “psychological research on gender tends to reify rather than undermine the discipline’s dominant conceptualization of gender” (p. 65). The methodological underpinnings of psychology are problematic for those of us intent on teaching both psychology and women’s studies (Hoffnung, 1986; Windsong, 2018). Grzanka’s analysis and teaching suggestions are valuable. Case and Desdamona Rios provide many specific ideas for revising psychology of women courses, in their contribution, “Infusing Intersectionality: Complicating the Psychology of Women Course.” Their suggestions will be useful for all women’s studies and multicultural courses, not just the psychology of women.
Part III focuses on social justice education; the essays present ideas for projects outside the classroom. David P. Rivera’s essay, “Teaching About Multiple Oppressed Identities,” explains that different combinations of privileged and marginalized identities may require different teaching strategies and suggests ways to overcome resistance to learning about social justice on the part of students who do not share the professors’ identities. Although I, a White woman, am familiar with resistance on the part of some (particularly male) students to changing gender privilege, this essay provoked me to think about the levels of resistance a lesbian African American woman professor, for example, might experience.
Case’s book does an excellent job of presenting the need for intersectional pedagogy and some of the associated problems. It resonates with the work of Peggy McIntosh (2003) who has been writing and speaking about unearned privilege for decades––changing the framework from the underprivileged to the overprivileged. For those who have been trying, by including her work and that of Black feminists such as bell hooks (1984), this book will be helpful. For those new to teaching about intersectionality, it will be very helpful. It provides deep background and pedagogical tools to encourage classroom and curricular inclusion and connects with feminist critiques of disciplinary scholarship. Historians of the American south have been highlighting the intersection of race and gender (see e.g., Feimster, 2011) and discussion has begun in the social sciences (see e.g., DeBlaere, Watson, & Langrehr, 2018), but neither directly addresses pedagogy. I recommend Intersectional Pedagogy as a reference book for those teaching women’s studies and those teaching multicultural and gender courses in the social sciences at both the undergraduate and graduate level. I do not know of any comparable book.