A Message from
Lisa Bowleg, PhD, MA
Back in 2021 when I was preparing to launch the Intersectionality Training Institute (ITI), I had a vision for an intellectually engaging event to which people passionate or curious about intersectionality would apply to spend 5 in-person days learning, collaborating and building community around the application of intersectionality to social justice and equity projects. Small cohort. Deep immersion. Transformative impact. This vision birthed the inaugural Intersectionality Summer Intensive (ISI) in 2022.
With fidelity to core themes of intersectionality, ISI strives to strike a balance between depth and breadth, didactic and interactive, and different levels of knowledge and experience with intersectionality. The experience is intense in the best way possible. ISI is intellectually rigorous and stimulating, challenging, exhausting, memorable, and fun.
Although we are serious about intersectionality, the ISI vibe is chill, affirming, welcoming and light. Unless they tell you, you likely won’t know the credentials of anyone in the room. This is intentional. We want ISI participants to feel comfortable and to be excited about joining our vibrant community of intersectionality scholars, researchers, and practitioners, regardless of career stage or rank.
ISI is many wonderful things, but one thing ISI is not, is inexpensive. ITI is independently owned by its founder and CEO, Lisa Bowleg, and is not supported by grants or investment dollars. All of ITI’s programs (ISI included) and operating expenses are 100% supported by registrations. Universities and privately or publicly funded organizations often have resources to subsidize their programs either financially or in-kind. ITI, a small but mighty and lean business, does not.
We see this as our superpower, however. Being self-funded means that ITI is an independent voice, one able to maintain our fierce commitments to social justice and equity regardless of which direction the political winds blow.
Small cohort. Deep immersion. Transformative impact. ISI offers unparalleled value that you simply won’t find anywhere else. As the first and only global Intersectionality Summer Intensive, we think you’ll agree with us that coming to ISI 2027 will be one of the best decisions you’ll make this year! We look forward to welcoming you to ISI 2027.
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Ceryl Davies, PhD (ISI 2026):
My Welsh reflections on the Intersectionality Summer Intensive 2026
"From the moment I arrived, there was a genuine sense of warmth and welcome. The ISI community is one built on curiosity, generosity and a shared commitment to tackling inequities and power disparities through better research. Whether during expert led learning sessions, networking over coffee (and amazing food!) or conversations at the end of the day, everyone was willing to share experiences, ideas and practical advice. The environment was set where learning was genuinely collaborative, with everyone encouraging one another to share ideas, ask questions and learn together. This spirit of openness has left a lasting impression."
Registration Options
Get even more from your registration
You can maximize your registration by bundling it with perks such as:
- A 1-year subscription to the Scholar Tier (our top tier) of the Intersectionality Collective:
- Monthly small group office hours with intersectionality experts;
- One year of unlimited access to our on demand training library (a roughly $10,000 value)
- Dedicated individual coaching hours with an ISI facilitator, tailored to your project;
- Professional headshots with our event photographer; or
- The Academic Entrepreneur Package, a personalized review of your faculty or personal website, LinkedIn, and online presence.
Ahleah Miles (ISI 2026)
Assistant Professor of HR & LR, Michigan State University
"As someone who is not specifically working in the health equity research space, I found the content to be extremely accessible and applicable to my work as an organizational psychologist.
I really appreciated the time we had to work individually or in small groups on our current projects and applying core themes of intersectionality to them."
What Is Intersectionality?
Rooted in the experiences of Black and other women of color in the U.S. and Black feminist activism, intersectionality highlights how multiple and intersecting systems of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism) shape social, economic and health outcomes and inequities based on intersectional positions (e.g., racial/ethnic group, sex, gender, sexual and gender minority status, socioeconomic status, and disability) and their relationships to power and privilege.
Why is ISI's motif a bell?
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear Philadelphia? No, not cheesesteaks. Not Rocky. And not the Eagles.
The Liberty Bell!
Of course the Liberty bell.
Philadelphia is the birthplace of the Intersectionality Training Institute and ISI. The bell motif pays homage to ISI’s birthplace. If you look closely at the style of the I-icon that we use on our website and other communications, you’ll see elements reflected in our new ISI bell.
Historically, bells have also symbolized freedom, a way to gather or communicate with communities, or spiritual awakening. As for the Liberty Bell, the Abolitionist Movement to end slavery, and later the Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights Movement used the bell as a symbol of protest, hope and equality.
The symbolism of bells is also sinister and complicated. Bells, for example, were used to track and monitor enslaved people. Stephen Lindamood, the thoughtful and talented graphic artist behind our new ISI bell explains how this complicated history of the bell informed his creation of the ISI bell:
“Bells have served as motifs and symbols of freedom, suppression, and subversion throughout history. [So I wondered], how can we keep heritage to the Liberty Bell, while expanding its meaning to embrace the good, bad and the ugly?
The mark is a bell drawn as continuous concentric paths that wind and weave into one another, with an S emerging at the center. The bell survives as the recognition anchor, but it's no longer an illustration of a bell. It's a bell built from intersecting paths, so the form itself performs the mission. The linework also carries the lineage: its woodcut, activist-print DNA means the illustrative soul didn't die, it [just] changed medium.”
Emblematic of the complexity of the Liberty Bell’s history and intersectionality, we at ITI also envision the ISI bell to be a call for transformative social justice action.