Re-reading Do Haath as an Intersectional Text: Ismat Chughtai and Dalits

Even though scholars and feminists have accused intersectional theory for being superficial, inadequate, context bereft and fashionably more populist than academic, its applicability in addressing multi-layered forms of discrimination cannot be ignored. It is against this background that the article, through a deconstructive reading of an Urdu short story, Do Haath, highlights the challenges of the protagonist, the Dalit household, comprised primarily of women. Besides discussing the intersectional subjects of the story, this article questions the deliberate omissions of the multiply disadvantageous people such as the Dalit-Muslim women, also known as the Pasmanda women from feminist, Dalit and subaltern discourses. Furthermore, this article foregrounds intersectionality framework to understand the multiplicative nature of oppression and discrimination that Pasmanda women are subjected to, and how by excluding them from their respective agenda, feminist and Dalit activists have contributed towards their perpetual marginality. Finally, the article suggests that intersectionality framework should be used to understand moments of celebratory resilience in the lives of intersectional subjects.

Post-apartheid South Africa’s exacerbated inequality and the Covid-19 pandemic: intersectionality and the politics of power

Over the past fifteen years there has been an increase in the number of protest movements globally. In recent years and amid the global pandemic there have been hundreds of protests and demonstrations in South Africa. Consequently, in comparison to other parts of the globe, such protest action in South Africa is high. As a result, stable governance in the region has been impacted. Notably, during the resistance years in defiance of the apartheid regime, citizens in South Africa expressed their social discontent against exclusion and marginalisation through identities as radical and intersectional – this was also articulated in the recent protests that occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Johannesburg in July 2021. This highlights the relevance of intersectionality within this region. Intersectionality can be seen to refer to the inequalities that exist beyond femininities and masculinities. Intersectional theory explores aspects of discrimination, oppression, exploitation and inequality across identity, gender, race, ethnicity and class. This study uses a qualitative research approach to conceptually analyse intersectional theory. Thereafter the study discusses the relevance of intersectional theory in a post-apartheid context by illustrating intersectionality through the unrest and protests that occurred, following the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma. The findings of the study suggest the need to unpack the legacies of African elitism and social relations, while implementing intersectional reform that promotes greater inclusivity of citizens in the state.

Intersectional and social epidemiology approaches to understanding the Influence of race, ethnicity, and caste on global public health

Ethnicity, race, caste, sex, and gender are characteristics that can determine social status, health, and illness for both individuals and communities. They are among the many attributes that social epidemiologists account for when conducting research to understand the forces driving health disparities. Intersectional theory posits that each individual comprises multiple, interlocking identities that are projected on to them by the society in which they live. These identities confer multilayered privilege or disadvantage based on context-specific power dynamics, social norms, and biases. Intersectionality is a perspective that grew out of the social justice movements that have shaken entrenched systems of power and social norms over the last 60 years. Intersectional theory challenges traditional epidemiological methods of measuring associations between demographic variables and health outcomes. It also offers social epidemiology an opportunity to explore new methodologies that illuminate factors contributing to health disparities and promote social justice as core research objectives. This chapter illustrates intersections between social determinants and health outcomes in a descriptive case study focused on India and explores innovative methods for incorporating intersectionality into epidemiological research methods and analysis.

Sleepwalking into the ‘Post-Racial’: Social Policy and Research-Led Teaching

Research-led teaching is the sine qua non of the 21st century university. To understand its possibilities for teaching and learning about race in Social Policy requires, as a first step, interrogating the epistemological and theoretical core of the discipline, as well as its organisational dynamics. Using parts of Emirbayer and Desmond’s (2012) framework of disciplinary reflexivity, this article traces the discipline’s habits of thought but also its lacunae in the production of racial knowledge. This entails focusing on its different forms of institutionalised and epistemological whiteness, and what has shaped the omission or marginalisation of a full understanding of the racialisation of welfare subjects and regimes in the discipline. Throughout, the article offers alternative analyses and thinking that fully embrace the historical and contemporary role of race, racism, and nation in lived realities, institutional processes, and global racial orders. It concludes with pointers towards a re-envisioning of Social Policy, within a framework in which postcolonial and intersectional theory and praxis are championed. Only then might a decolonised curriculum be possible in which race is not peripheral to core teaching and learning.

Superheroines and superstereotypes?

Since the new millennium, there has been a remarkable increase in audio-visual adaptations of superhero comic books (Garcia-Escriva, 2018). Whereas these adaptations used to include predominantly male superheroes, they have started to feature more female superheroes (Curtis & Cardo, 2018). An increase, however, does not imply diverse and rounded representations, since women in superhero movies tend to be depicted in stereotypical and sexualized ways (Kaplan, Miller & Rauch, 2016). Even though previous research has addressed the films and series' politics of gender representation, there is a need for research that looks at televised female superheroes from a queer postfeminist and intersectional lens. Therefore, this study conducted a textual analysis, informed by queer postfeminist and intersectional theory, to explore how leading female superheroes in the Arrowverse series Arrow and Supergirl are represented. We concluded that female superheroes who assume a central role in the series are represented in a rather empowered manner, but that there are still improvements possible with regard to the representation of race and sexuality.

Integration, Enlightenment or Rights?

This article examines how Danish Muslim organisations ascribe meaning to hate crimes against Muslims in Denmark. The study is a maximum variation case study of three Muslim organisations. Drawing on intersectional theory, organisations were included that vary on identity markers. While there are great similarities in how the organisations define hate crime, the article argues that they articulate the concept as part of very different socio-political contexts. This suggests that while the organisations in general agree on what hate crime is, the organisations’ intersectional identities affect which socio-political contexts they articulate as relevant in relation to hate crime.

Vulnerability and resilience intersections

This chapter examines the concepts of ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’, noting that most research focuses only on an individualised understanding of these terms. What can be known from empirical research is reviewed through the lens of intersectional theory, which accentuates the need for a whole-system approach to afford children greater protection. Just as online child sexual victimisation (OCSV) is not homogenous, neither are children. Their age, gender, race, sexualities, migration status, and class intersect and change over time. Vulnerability and resilience can be time and identity specific. They can also be fluid; a prior victimisation does not necessarily result in vulnerability, and resilience to one form of OCSV may not provide resilience to another. From a child's perspective, OCSV experience holds similarities and important differences in terms of perpetration and consequences, requiring tailored intersectional responses at the appropriate level.

Digital geographies, feminist relationality, Black and queer code studies: Thriving otherwise

Digitality is deeply implicated in sociospatial processes of exclusion, adverse incorporation, impoverishment and enrichment. Theorizing digital practices of life and thriving is politically and epistemologically urgent, and more robustly intersectional theory in digital geographies scholarship offers crucial pathways. I argue for theorizing digital geographies at the intersection of feminist relationality and Black, queer and feminist code studies. I demonstrate these theoretical horizons through an analysis of ‘glitch politics’ that refuse normative digital-social-spatial relations of technocapitalist urban life, and catalyze sociospatial relations of thriving otherwise, drawing examples from digital practices of street newspapers sold by unsheltered people in cities worldwide.

Intersectionality and Epistemic Erasure: A Caution to Decolonial Feminism

In this article I caution that María Lugones's critiques of Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectional theory posit a dangerous form of epistemic erasure, which underlies Lugones's decolonial methodology. This essay serves as a critical engagement with Lugones's essay “Radical Multiculturalism and Women of Color Feminisms” in order to uncover the decolonial lens within Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality. In her assertion that intersectionality is a “white bourgeois feminism colluding with the oppression of Women of Color,” Lugones precludes any possibility of intersectionality operating as a decolonial method. Although Lugones states that her “decolonial feminism” is for all women of color, it ultimately excludes Black women, particularly with her misconstruing of Crenshaw's articulation of intersectionality that is rooted within the Black American feminist tradition. I explore Lugones's claims by juxtaposing her rendering of intersectionality with Crenshaw's and conclude that Lugones's decolonial theory risks erasing Black women from her framework.