UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA WGS 498/GSJ 598

Intersectional Research Methodologies


MODULE 4:

RED INTERSECTIONALITY?

Introduction

By now you might have noticed the absence of Indigenous voices and issues from the intersectionality literature we have read so far. This is not an accident. The question of the relationship between intersectionality, Indigenous worldviews and issues is far from settled. Indeed an inaugural community dialogue on “Intersectionality and Indigeneity” held in 2012 in Coast Salish Territories (downtown Vancouver) was dedicated to an initial exploration of whether intersectionality is useful for understanding Indigenous lives under settler colonialism and how intersectionality addresses Indigeneity, and whether a specific Indigenous intersectionality framework is required. 

While some Indigenous activists, creators and scholars argue for a specific and distinct “red intersectionality” (Clark 2016), others have asserted that “Indigenous worldviews are inherently intersectional” (Hunt 2012, 1) and that Indigenous activists, as early as the 1920s, already had put together intersectional legal arguments (Clark 2016, 49), so that intersectionality offers little new or relevant to Indigenous thought and action.  However, other Indigenous scholars and activists as you will learn  in this module, productively engage intersectional theory and methodology for their research, scholarship and activism. And intersectionality scholars grapple in turn with how to address Indigeneity in their research. 

In this Module, rather than seeking to settle these diverse views and questions regarding the relationship between intersectionality and Indigenous thoughts and issues, we explore a range of different perspectives to understand further how intersectionality is understood and utilized within Indigenous scholarship, creation, and action and how Indigenous thought and Indigeneity is taken up in research under the sign of intersectionality.

Learning goals:

In this Module, you will:

  • Encounter diverse perspectives on intersectionality in feminist Indigenous scholarship
  • Critically evaluate how Indigeneity does or does not figure as a category of analysis in intersectional research
  • Deepen your understanding of concerns about intersectional frameworks within Indigenous scholarship
  • Hone your proposal writing skills

Moving forward