Identities and Ideologies: Intersectionality and LGBTQ Individuals in Higher Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Intersectionality in Postsecondary Education

Abstract

The purpose of the current proposal is to examine the power of progressive ideological commitments to address issues where examinations of identities alone fall short. Specifically, we propose extending Crenshaw’s (1991a, b) concept of intersectionality to examine how LGBTQ individuals experience the everyday tensions between identity and ideology on campus. We seek to complicate the discourse in higher education about LGBTQ issues and to center LGBTQ-identified individuals as the creators of ally criteria and identity and LGBTQ work. Specifically, we recognize the intersectionality of identity in this research (Crenshaw, 1994) and that alliance work across lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities will be diverse and we suspect at times contested.

Authors

• James M. DeVita, University of North Carolina - Wilmington

• Allison Daniel Anders, University of South Carolina