Lisa Bowleg, PhD, MA

Founder and President, Intersectionality Training Institute April 4, 2023 Image2 (3)

Salon Title:

How Many Scales Do We Need? Intersectionality and Survey Measures

Salon Guest:

Image1 (1) Ayden Scheim, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA US Salon Description Salon Date: March 8, 2023

Key Salon Takeaways

  • Asking people to attribute the type of discrimination (e.g., racism? sexism? racism and sexism?) they have experienced on a survey is really challenging. A key issue that many intersectionality researchers grapple with is: to what extent can respondents really make the attributions that we ask of them to make on our surveys (e.g., Did that incident happen because you were Black and transgender, and/or speak with an accent)?
  • It is burdensome for survey respondents to attribute the sources of intersectional discrimination, particularly in cognitive interviews, which are time-consuming and cognitively taxing, by definition. The provocative question that Ayden posed this: is this participant burden justified?
  • What is most important in terms of people’s reports of intersectional discrimination: their subjective or objective reality? Many salonistes appeared to agree that subjective reality was most important because: (1) it’s what people live and experience; and (2) it is critical for people in the helping professions (e.g., therapists, health care providers), friends and family to affirm the subjective reality of people marginalized and oppressed by intersectional discrimination.
  • Asked about the 3 most important things that novice quantitative intersectionality researchers need to know about measuring intersectional discrimination, Ayden offered the following advice:
  1. BEFORE you collect your data, answer these questions: What is your analysis plan? What do you want to research? What are your research questions? This is important because you may want to do an intracategorical intersectional study but not have the data to do intracategorical analyses.
  2. ALWAYS include strengths and assets-based measures at the end of your survey. After asking participants to share their most painful experiences of intersectional discrimination, it is important to recognize and acknowledge, as friend of the Intersectionality Training Institute and a member of our first Summer Intensive (2022) cohort, Dr. Elle Lett reminded us in her powerful July 2022 salon, people marginalized and oppressed by interlocking systems of oppression are “more than their pain.”
  3. Take LITERACY very seriously when you design your quantitative intersectional measures. Be attentive to respondents for whom English is not their first language, may have high school or lower as their highest level of education, and aren’t fluent in academic jargon.
Quote of the Chat: “Resilience is not a DIY endeavor” – Aysa Nogojiwanong

Resources from the Salon Discussion & Zoom Chat

Because most of the articles that we highlight during the salons and chats are copyrighted, we are not able to provide active links, just citations. Please let us know if you are having trouble locating an article (info@intersectionalitytraining.com) and we’ll do our best to try and get you a copy.
  • Routledge Companion to Intersectionalities: Those of you at our January 2023 salon will remember that Professors Jennifer Nash and Samantha Pinto were our guests to discuss their (then) forthcoming book, The Routledge Companion to Intersectionalities. Well, as of February 2023, the book is out. Although the Routledge website lists the price at $250, Amazon.com lists it for $203. For those of you with university library connections, please ask your librarian to order it.Yours truly has a chapter in the new volume:Bowleg, L. (2023). Beyond intersectional identities: Ten intersectional structural competencies for critical health equity research. In J. C. Nash & S. Pinto (Eds.), Routledge Companion to Intersectionality (pp. 101-116). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003128656-12
  • Ayden’s original article on the development and validation of the Intersectionality Discrimination Index (co-authored with the Institute’s Co-Director of Programs, Greta Bauer, PhD, MPH):Scheim, A., & Bauer, G. R. (2019). The Intersectionality Discrimination Index: Development and validation of measures of self-reported enacted and anticipated discrimination for intercategorical analysis. Social Science and Medicine, 226, 225-235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.12.016
  • Professor João Luiz Bastos, a Brazilian intersectionality researcher who is measuring intersectionality discrimination in Brazil, collaborating with Ayden on a bilingual InDi, was a saloniste at the April salon. During the salon, Ayden mentioned Bastos’ criticism of the InDI:Harnois, C. E., & Bastos, J. L. (2019). The promise and pitfalls of intersectional scale development. Social Science & Medicine, 223, 73-76. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.01.039
  • The challenges survey respondents face attributing a primary reason for discrimination in intersectionality research:Harnois, C. E., Bastos, J. L., & Shariff-Marco, S. (2022). Intersectionality, contextual specificity, and everyday discrimination: Assessing the difficulty associated with identifying a main reason for discrimination among racial/ethnic minority respondents. Sociological Methods & Research, 51(3), 983-1013. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124120914929
  • Bilingual research on measuring intersectional discrimination:Pereira, N. P., Bastos, J. L., & Lisboa, C. S. d. M. (2022). Intersectional Discrimination Index: Initial stages of cross-cultural adaptation to Brazilian Portuguese. Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia, 25. https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-549720220028Scheim, A. I., Bauer, G. R., Bastos, J. L., & Poteat, T. (2021). Advancing intersectional discrimination measures for health disparities research: Protocol for a bilingual mixed methods measurement study. JMIR Research Protocols, 10(8), e30987. https://doi.org/10.2196/30987
  •  In line with Ayden’s recommendation that any research on intersectional discrimination should also include measures of strengths and assets, salonistes chatted about about Elle’s hot of the presses new article criticizing the concept of resilience:Suslovic, B., & Lett, E. (2023). Resilience is an adverse event: A critical discussion of resilience theory in health services research and public health. Community Health Equity Research & Policy. https://doi.org/10.1177/2752535X231159721
  • Salonistes in the chat also highlighted the work of Monica Ghabrial, Ph.D. — another member of the Intersectionality Training Institute’s Summer Intensive 2022 Cohort — advancing the concept of “positive intersectionality”:Ghabrial, M. A. (2017). “Trying to figure out where we belong”: Narratives of racialized sexual minorities on community, identity, discrimination, and death. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 14(1), 42-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-016-0229-x

Opportunity: Postdoctoral Fellowship for Global Trans Health and/or Intersectional Discrimination with Dr. Ayden Scheim

So how’s this for a little synchronicity? Dr. Scheim is seeking to hire a postdoctoral fellow to work on NIH-funded studies of global trans health and/or intersectional discrimination (focus flexible depending on interests). The candidate should have survey research experience; a background in qualitative, mixed-methods, and/or psychometrics research is desirable. The position could be appropriate for people with PhDs in epidemiology, community health, psychology, sociology, or related fields. The start date is flexible but ideally in early Fall 2023, for one year with the possibility of extension for a second year. As per current Drexel University rules, standard NIH postdoc guidelines apply. The fellow will also receive a generous annual research allowance and assistance with moving expenses if they wish to relocate to Philadelphia (remote work is also an option). The fellow will have protected time to work on their own projects. Apply here.

Come join us at the April 12, 2023 Salon! Register Here.

Salon Title: Grappling with Intersectional Praxis Salon Guest Image3 (1) Lisa Rosenthal, PhD Associate Professor Pace University Department of Psychology, New York City, US Salon Description Salon Date: April 12, 2023, 5-6:30 pm EST