Dates
19. and 26.04.2023, 2.15 - 6.00 pm
ECTS
2 (Pflicht- oder Wahlpflichtbereich ICS / Wahlpflichtbereich GS, SLS, SINTA / Modul I GSA)
Language
English (German possible depending on participants)
Registration
Mail to mike.toggweiler@unibe.ch as well as on KSL: https://www.ksl.unibe.ch/ (Login with UniBe-Account, search with title)
Abstract
When Black feminist legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw first coined the term intersectionality in 1989, she offered a framework for exploring the dynamics of oppression of marginalized communities and people that had a lasting impact way beyond the field of legal studies. With the Denkfigur of the traffic intersection, Crenshaw provided an apt metaphor to make visible the ways systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, class and other forms of discrimination result in unique, dynamic, mutually reinforcing layers of discrimination for individuals. Some thirty years later, intersectionality has become an oft-used buzzword, and an intersectional lens has arguably become indispensable for the work of the critical researcher. But what does intersectionality mean and how has the concept evolved over time? How can we actually put an intersectional approach into practice in our own research? These and more questions will be the subject of our reading group on ‘intersectionality’. The aim of this two-day course is to read and discuss key texts on the notion of intersectionality, to explore the concept in practice, and to reflect on the usefulness and applicability of the concept for our own dissertation projects.
Program
Day 1
Introduction and discussion of key texts
Text
Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989. 139-167.
Other texts tba
Day 2
Discussion and reflection on intersectionality in practice and in our
own research
Texts
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. Spiegel & Grau, 2015.
Soriano, Jen. “Multiplicity from the Margins: The Expansive Truth of Intersectional Form.” Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, 5.1, Fall 2018.
