For this project, students choose (concept essay). Either option will be developed and submitted in three stages: a proposal, a research report, and a final paper.
Stage 1: Proposal (20 points)
Students submit a one-page project proposal that answers a series of questions; the questions are posted in The Writing Project Canvas module.
Option A: Concept Essay
The purpose of this option is to allow a student to investigate a gender-and-communication related theory, concept, or term that the student finds especially interesting and important. This option is ideally suited for students who want to end the course with an academic writing sample. The final paper must make clear how and why the concept that the student has chosen is significant (i.e., why anyone should care about it)
Project Proposal: Navigating the Labyrinth of Intersectionality: A Comprehensive Exploration in Gender and Communication
The concept I have chosen is Intersectionality. Intersectionality is the idea that social identities such as gender, class, and race intertwine to shape a person’s experiences of privilege and oppression. It challenges the normal views of self and promotes a more in depth perception of inequalities in society.
Intersectionality was coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, a legal scholar, some of her work such as Demarginalizing the intersection of Race and Sex; a Black feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminine Theory, and Anti-racist politics, paved a way for the concept of Intersectionality. Although she set the foundation for Intersectionality, it has since been developed further by feminist theorists, sociologists and people working in gender studies, this further development has allowed the concept of intersectionality to develop past its original limits into a more versatile instrument in understanding the complexity of identity.
The context of Intersectionality is in the broader framework of feminist theory and critical race theory. It lines up with other concepts that address oppression, privilege and power dynamics. Intersectionality extends beyond academia but it is also involved in the influence of communications in pop-culture, policy making and social movements.
Intersectionality is important because it serves as a tool through which we can explore the systems of oppression and privilege. It is important in understanding the dynamics of gender and communication. It goes past the simple categories and accounts for an individual’s complexities and experiences from intersecting identities.
My strategies for learning about intersectionality are to look at foundational texts, scholarly articles, academic journals, and webinars. I will read Kimberle Crenshaw’s works, for example, “Mapping the Margins : Intersectionality, identity politics, and Violence against women of color” to gain conceptual ideas and origins of my concept. I will read academic journals and research papers that discuss intersectionality. I will use online platforms and webinars to experience conversations in real time about studying Intersectionality in gender and communication. The questions I will ponder are “How does Intersectionality challenge the conventional ideas of Identity?” “How has Intersectionality progressed with time?” and “What are the connotations of Intersectionality for gender and communication studies?
My project aims to explore and unwrap the complexities of Intersectionality, discover and further investigate its roots and its applications in real life. I also aim to discuss its transformative power in furthering our understanding of gender and communication.
Stage 2: Research Report (50 points)
Students submit a document with citations of at least five sources, each of which is accompanied by one paragraph summarizing the source and explicating the relevance of its content to the project. Students may use any sources (academic and/or popular), but are strongly encouraged to consider each source’s credibility and value for the project’s merit overall. No less than three of the five sources must be peerreviewed, scholarly publications. Use these sources only for the final paper
Research Report: Navigating the Labyrinth of Intersectionality: A Comprehensive Exploration in Gender and Communication
Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics.” Droit et société 108 (2021): 465.
Crenshaw’s work on intersectionality provides a foundational understanding of how various axes of identity intersect to shape experiences of privilege and oppression. Through analysis of legal cases, she demonstrates the inadequacy of single-issue analyses in addressing the complexities faced by individuals with intersecting identities, particularly Black women. Crenshaw demonstrates this through the case litigations of DeGraffenreid v. General Motors, Moore v. Hughes Helicopter, Inc., and Payne v. Travenol – all of which are instances where existing legalities do not acknowledge the kind of discrimination encountered by Black women. The study is highly relevant to the project as it elicits the notions of birth and the foundation of complexity theory, thereby laying out the platform for further inquiries into gender, race, and other face-to-face interactions. It is necessary to get a hold of the arguments framed by Crenshaw to know how her intersection theory is a weapon against conventional thinking of identity and its role in the dynamics of power in society. She goes on to advocate that both feminist and anti-racist thought must incorporate and focus on the Black women issues and experiences of women of color. Therefore, intersectionality must be observed when dealing with systems of oppression. Crenshaw’s approach will become an integral part of my project for creating a theoretical framework that will allow us to discuss intersectionality and its role in gender and communication studies, leading to knowledge that can be used to investigate how individuals handle social structures.
Collins, Patricia Hill. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge, 2022.
Hill Collins is the one for introducing intersectionality as a critical component of Black feminist thinking, shedding much light on the organization of power and oppression from the perspective of Black women. Collins notes that black women live in the intersection of race, gender, and class, and this intersection is often excluded in traditional feminist theory. The source has been deemed relevant to the project because it expands the knowledge of intersectionality by focusing on black women’s experiences. This consequently emphasizes the interconnectedness between gender, race, and communication.
Cho, Sumi, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall. “Toward a field of intersectionality studies: Theory, applications, and praxis.” Signs: Journal of women in culture and society 38.4 (2013): 785-810.
This article reviews the development of intersectionality as a research subject and lists its conceptual basis, demand, and potential application into specifics. Cho, Crenshaw, and Macall
try to illustrate that intersectionality has been used in all the areas of social sciences, like law and sociology, and by professional activists. From now on, they want more proper academia and activism to embrace the idea of intersectionality further. The article is not limited to discussion and criticism of issues. Still, it also mentions and tackles the problems and challenges found within intersectionality studies, providing some insights into future endeavors and tasks. Meanwhile, this source constitutes a reliable source for this project as it gives many facets of the intersectionality framework as a changing and growing concept for comprehending social inequalities, thus emphasizing the exploration of gender and communication.
Hancock, Ange-Marie. Intersectionality: An intellectual history. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Ange-Marie Hancock traces intersectionality from its intellectual history, sharing how it came about in Black feminist thought and was subsequently used in academia and activism. Hancock recognizes that intersectional theory has its roots in the work of many scholars from different eras and realms – such as Kimberlé Crenshaw or Audre Lorde – but it is also a modern and practical approach to treating social justice questions. It is one of the significant sources that aid the proposal by doing a historical depiction of the role of intersectionality in understanding power relations and enabling inclusive discourses.
Hill Collins, Patricia, and Sirma Bilge. “Intersectionality. Hoboken.” (2016).
The book under examination, authored by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, comprehensively and systematically discusses intersectionality from theoretical and methodological perspectives. Combining a diversity of disciplinary fields such as sociology, critical race theory, and feminist studies, the authors analyze how the processes of power work for individuals at the level of everyday life. They do this by examining the issue of intersectionality as it affects social justice and policy initiatives. This source is significantly related to the research proposal because it explores the role of intersectionality and how it relates to gender and communication. The source also mentions the applicability of intersectionality in research and activism.
Hull, Shawnika J., et al. “Intersectionality Policy Making Toolkit: key principles for an intersectionality-informed policymaking process to serve diverse women, children, and families.” Health promotion practice 24.4 (2023): 623-635.
Hull et al. (2023) present an intersectionality policy making toolkit that helps reduce health and economic inequalities among racial/ethnic minority women and children in the U.S. The toolkit will help policymakers, program implementers, and organizations implement more equitable policies and programs to promote maternal and child health (MCH). Utilizing the cross grasp of critical race theory and the theory of intersecting identities, the toolkit provides the tactical method for the function of intersectionality in the policymaking process. The purpose of this source for the project proposal is to give ideas on the practical application of
intersectionality in the day-to-day context, particularly for marginalized populations, such as policymaking. This source is essential because it explains how intersections can shape MCH policies and programs. It produces a clearer picture of how intersecting identities affect the patterns of privileges in providing health and economic systems. Besides, the article depicts how it is necessary to put into play the voices of those significantly disadvantaged by inequities, and this idea is in sync with the project’s goal, which is to investigate the interrelatedness of gender and communication as the key to transformative thinking. Embracing this information and incorporating it into the project can furnish us with different viewpoints related to how intersectionality might be utilized to bring about the solution of systematic inequalities and promote social justice.
Collins, Patricia Hill, et al. “Intersectionality as critical social theory: Intersectionality as critical social theory, Patricia Hill Collins, Duke University Press, 2019.” Contemporary Political Theory 20.3 (2021): 690-725.
Collins et al. argue that critical theory intersecting race, class, and gender forms knowledge that can resist political domination and subjugation in works such as Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory (Collins et al. 2021). The article looks at the evolution of intersectionality and its genealogy in resistance and oppositional knowledge of marginalized persons, including women and people of color. Collins uses stories of Indigenous people, people of color, people who are part of the social group, and other subordinated groups to show intersectional resistance’s interaction and interwoven nature. This source is relevant to the project proposal since it analyzes intersectionality as a critical framework that allows us to comprehend and challenge power relations. It helps us better understand how intersectionality has altered over time into a more comprehensive concept than the initial race, class, and gender. On the other hand, the article also discusses the centrality of intersectionality as an instrument for creating participatory and democratic interpretive communities, aligning with the project’s objective of exploring the transformative character of intersectionality in communication and gender studies. By introducing some ideas from this source into the study, an increasingly nuanced picture of intersectionality as a dynamic and inclusive model of handling societal inequalities in a way that brings positive change can emerge.
Hiraide, Lydia Ayame, and Elizabeth Evans. “Intersectionality and social movements: a comparison of environmentalist and disability rights movements.” Social Movement Studies (2023): 1-18.
Hiraide and Evans (2023) investigate the concept of intersectionality as it applies to social movements, with England as the case study focusing on the environmentalist and Disability Rights movements. The authors discuss the discourse analysis of the two groups’ official websites, revealing that intersectionality influences the organizations’ strategies and how they frame the issues of these movements. The research shows various intersectional factors that influence the discourse practices of some actors in these movements, mainly among young
persons and women of color. Intersectionality is among the most under-represented views promoted by almost zero existing groups. This source is an essential piece of the project proposal because it presents a real-life story, showing that social movements practice intersectionality, which aligns with the project that tests the theory of intersectionality outside the theory sphere. By integrating findings from this source, the project can better understand how intersectionality operates as a tool for social justice advocacy and grassroots organizing, particularly within gender and communication studies. Moreover, it critically reflects on the challenges and opportunities of incorporating intersectionality into social movement practices. It contributes valuable insights to the project’s exploration of intersectionality’s transformative power in understanding and addressing systemic inequalities.
Stage 3: Final Paper (100 points)
The final paper you must make clear what the significance of the concept/theory/term is. Final papers that do not adequately fulfill this requirement will receive a low score. A rubric that reflects the standards against which the final paper will be evaluated will be made available before the submission of the final paper. Final papers should be no less than 10 pages and no more than 13. The final paper should reflect that the author has worked extensively with the concept or artifact, researching, reading, and reflecting through the course of the semester. attached below si the rubric and example essay for the final paper
