The Role of Public Discourse in Intersectionality Theory: Navigating Flexible and Static Identity Formation.

• In Event: Objectification, Negotiated Identities and Constitutive Subjectivities

Abstract

Currently theoretical understandings of intersectionality are deeply tied to the individual, and often neglect the role of public discourse in creating identities. Consequently, theories of intersectionality have difficulty navigating the tensions between rigid and fluid conceptions of identities. In agreement with NCA’s call to account for both stability and change, I argue that intersectionality theory must give more attention to public discourses in order to understand the category of identity as simultaneously stable and changing.

Author

• Jessica Baldwin-Philippi, Northwestern University