The Intersectionality of 'Black Girls Matter'

Annual Constitution Day Address

Kimberlé Crenshaw

Groundbreaking racial theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw to present Dickinson’s Constitution Day Address

Kimberlé Crenshaw will present Dickinson’s Constitution Day Address, “Black Girls Matter,” on Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. in the Anita Tuvin Schlechter Auditorium (ATS). It is free and open to the public.

Crenshaw will explore the challenges facing women and girls of color in social, legal and economic contexts. She coined the influential term “intersectionality” to urge an understanding of oppression that is inclusive of race, gender, age and citizenship, among other social variables. In this lecture, Crenshaw will draw attention to marginalized issues facing girls of color.

A professor of law at UCLA and Columbia Law School, Crenshaw is the founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory Workshop and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, a gender- and racial-justice legal think tank. She is a leading authority on black feminist legal theory, civil rights and law. Crenshaw also is executive director of the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, which she founded, and her work with intersectionality influenced the equality clause in the South African constitution. Crenshaw promotes an intersectional approach to gender and racial justice with the Why We Can’t Wait Campaign.

The annual Constitution Day Address was endowed by a former Dickinson trustee, Winfield C. Cook '32. The event celebrates the signing of the United States Constitution and commemorates Dickinson’s connection to that document, through John Dickinson’s participation as an original signer. Each year, a prominent speaker discusses a contemporary constitutional issue. Previous Constitution Day speakers have included Kenneth Starr, Ira Glasser, Lowell Weicker, Marjorie Rendell, Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff.

This event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. It is co-sponsored by Dickinson’s Division of Student Life, the Women’s and Gender Resource Center, and the departments of American studies, women’s & gender studies, economics and sociology. It also is part of the Clarke Forum’s Leadership in an Age of Uncertainty Series.

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Published November 24, 2015