Keisha Lindsay

Keisha Lindsay’s research situates the relationship between race and gender at the center of gender and women’s studies and political theory. Lindsay does so to demonstrate how identity and difference affect the distribution of power. She pays particular attention to how Black people articulate their gendered and racialized identifications via popular and scholarly conversations about a range of topics including public schools, gay marriage, Black female respectability, and police brutality. Her approach is animated by intersectionality—an analytical framework that highlights how multiple oppressions mutually construct each other. While intersectionality is traditionally defined as feminist, Lindsay demonstrates how and why social groups’ intersectionally-informed claims about their experiences of oppression can be used to support an array of political agendas. Her research also reveals how to foster democratic orientations and coalitions among those who use intersectionality for diverse political ends.