Lisa Bowleg, PhD, MA

Founder and President &

Meredith Loui

Program Assistant Intersectionality Training Institute

November 8, 2023

Lisa’s Marginalia

Listen, I warned y’all.  When we launched these Salon Takeaways in April, I remember promising that the Salon Takeaways would always go out before the next Salon.  In this case, the next Salon is well, later today.  But as you’ll learn if you are able to join us, Team ITI has been doing a bit of international travel.  Specifically, Greta and I spent a week at the Ernst Strüngmann Forum in Frankfurt, discussing all things sex/gender and intersectionality with a group of multidisciplinary researchers, scientists, and scholars.But Team ITI is slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things with some new and exciting stuff on the horizon.  First up, we’re going to be at the 2023 American Public Health Association Meeting and Expo this weekend.  As in, we actually have a booth, Booth 243!  So, if you’re at the APHA Expo, come through (as the kids say) and say hello.  It would be wonderful to see you. The other BIG news that we are crazy excited about is that we are on the precipice of a new website.  Don’t worry, you’ll be among the first to know when it launches. It’s gorgeous!  One of the things that we plan to highlight on the new site is an Our Community page where we feature grants, publications, presentations, and curriculum of people in our community; that certainly includes you.  Thus, if you have any great intersectionality-related news that you would like to share, please send us the information about your news (e.g., title, funder, journal name, etc.) and a recent favorite photo.  You can send the information to info@intersectionalitytraining.com. Oh, and there’s one other BIG piece of good news that you may or may not know about.   Yours truly had the great honor of being awarded the 2023 James S. Jackson Memorial Award from the National Institute of Mental Health on October 25th.  It was such a wonderful day at NIMH, quite special, and at some point my talk will be posted on their website. So that’s it for now.  I’ll see you in a few hours. See you soon. Cheers, Lisa
 

Salon Title: Reproductive Justice: The Intersectional Lens We’ve Always Needed

Salon Guest:

Patrick Grzanka, PhD Divisional Dean for Social Sciences Professor of Psychology President-Elect, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
 

Key Salon Takeaways:

The September 13th Salon featuring Dr. Patrick Grzanka was exceptional!  If you were there, you know that I mean.  By the way, we are going to feature the above Zoom shot on the new website.  I like the photo so much that you can count on me requesting more of these going forward.  So here are some of the key takeaways from Patrick’s excellent salon.
  • “Terminally undisciplined” is the way Patrick described the many disciplines that his work crosses.  I figure many of you are similarly situated, too.
  • Patrick railed against the failure of the discipline of psychology to deploy intersectionality meaningfully.  He lamented that psychology has made it clear, particularly to early career scholars through “boundary policing,” that the field classifies certain topics, such as reproductive oppression — the focus of Patrick’s scholarly work, community-based work, and advocacy — as  “not for polite company” and is reticent on these topics to avoid controversy.  Patrick was adamant that this avoidance has been detrimental to the advancement of social justice in the field and beyond.
  • Asked to clarify the distinction between reproductive rights and reproductive justice, Patrick explained that reproductive rights have historically been organized almost exclusively around, well, rights, namely the right to access contraception and abortion.  This framing, adopted primarily by the White mainstream women’s reproductive movement provides a very narrow and single access perspective; one that ignores what Kimberle Crenshaw would call “the specific needs and concerns” of Black, Latina and Native American women in the U.S.  These needs and concerns include, but are not limited to issues such as forced or coerced sterilization, environmental racism, and the right to have, or not have children, to name just a few.   Reproductive justice refutes the notion reproduction is simply about rights.  Instead, it is a fundamentally a human rights issue, because it embraces and addresses the intersectional realities of Black women and other women and people of color, a foundationally intersectional issue.
  • Patrick outlined three primary tenets of reproductive justice:
    • Reproductive justice is a human rights framework – it centers the fundamental human rights of women and other birthing people and the intersectional oppression of Black women, women of color, other groups historically oppressed at multiple intersections;
    • Reproductive justice is not just about abortion – it encompasses the right to bodily autonomy, regardless of whether one chooses to have or not have children.
    • Reproductive justice is about access and not choice – choosing whether or not to have a child or an abortion should not be the epistemic framework from which we understand oppression.  Patrick argued for a more expansive epistemology that recognized the need for human rights such as universal access to free, fair, and equitable healthcare, and safe neighborhoods and communities.
  • Given that LGBTQ+ issues are a core focus of his work, Patrick recounted that people typically ask him three questions: “Why are you so obsessed with abortion?,” “What do LGBTQ+ people have to do with abortion?, and  why should LGBTQ+ people care about it?”  His response:  reproductive justice affects everyone, not just people capable of getting pregnant.  He noted that many queer identified people are in relationships that could result in pregnancies, or want to start families of their own.   Moreover, he highlighted that queer people are subject to the same kind (and other forms) of sexual violence that may result in unintended or unwanted pregnancies.  He recommended that the field (and we) jettison the idea that heterosexual people are the only people affected by abortion, and understand the many ways in which abortion and reproductive justice affect us all.
  • As for those of us doing intersectionality and social justice work (Salonistes know this is one and the same), the biggest takeaway from Patrick’s insightful salon is that we all, regardless of our disciplines and areas of specialty, need to integrate principles of reproductive justice into our work.  We need to write about and raise awareness about reproductive justice as foundational issues of human rights and health equity.  We simply can’t avoid the controversy; we need to wade into the challenging dialogues about reproductive rights.
Quotes of the Chat: “My mother [who attended the salon] said that [the Salonistes] were some of the smartest people she has ever heard.”  Lindsay, who attended with her mother, Jane. We’re biased, but we agree. “Can we put that on our CVs?  Intersectionality Salon Saloniste?” – Cindy Veldhuis (Lisa to Cindy: Of course you can!)

Resources from the Salon Discussion & Zoom Chat

Note: 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.Reproductive Justice and Psychology Grzanka, P. R. (2020). From buzzword to critical psychology: An invitation to take intersectionality seriously. Women & Therapy, 43(3-4), 244-261. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2020.1729473 Grzanka, P. R., & Frantell, K. A. (2017). Counseling psychology and reproductive justice: A call to action. The Counseling Psychologist, 45(3), 326-352. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000017699871 Intersectionality and Reproductive Justice Grzanka, P. R. (2nd Ed.) (2019). Intersectionality: Foundations and frontiers. NY: Routledge. Grzanka, P.R., Adler, J. & Blazer, J. Making up allies: The identity choreography of straight LGBT activism. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 12, 165–181 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-014-0179-0 Grzanka, P. R., & Cole, E. R. (2021). Intersectionality is not a footnote: Comment on Roberts and Rizzo (2021). The American Psychologist. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000911 Moradi, B., & Grzanka, P. R. (2017). Using intersectionality responsibly: Toward critical epistemology, structural analysis, and social justice activism. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(5), 500-513. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000203 Epistemologies of Ignorance Bowleg, L., del Río-González, A. M., Holt, S. L., Pérez, C., Massie, J. S., Mandell, J. E., & A. Boone, C. (2017). Intersectional epistemologies of ignorance: How behavioral and social science research shapes what we know, think we know, and don’t know about US Black men’s sexualities. The Journal of Sex Research, 54(4-5), 577-603. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1295300 Reproductive Rights as Human Rights Gómez, J. M. (2023). The cultural betrayal of Black women and girls: A Black feminist approach to healing from sexual abuse (pp. xvii-236). American Psychological Association. Luna, Z. (2020). Reproductive rights as human rights: Women of color and the fight for reproductive justice. NYU Press. Sister Song: Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective 2023 Black Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda

Other Things Y’all Need to Know

Writing RetreatsEaston’s Nook See those thriving plants in my background on the Zoom photo above?  I hosted Patrick’ss from the dining room at Easton’s Nook.  Y’all, you MUST know about Easton’s Nook.  I had heard about this marvelous place for years, but you know how it is.  Well, I finally got there earlier this year.  I have already been twice this year, and in a few weeks will return for my third visit of the year.  What is Easton’s Nook?  The most wonderful and welcoming writer’s retreat, a place to focus on your work in a place that feels like a warm, sweet, supportive hug from a cherished friend.  And the food, OMG the food!!!! Three mouthwatering meals a day lovingly prepared by Nadine Mattis, who along with her sister Jacqui Mattis, founded this magical haven.  You just won’t believe how productive you can be when you are embraced in a space where others are working and writing, and did I mention the amazing food?!??!?!!  The Nook is often booked MONTHS in advance, and is so beloved that those in the know don’t want you to know about it.  Shhhh…  It will be our secret.  Also, ask Salonistes such as  Tonia Poteat and Sukhmani Singh who have spent time at the Nook. Thrive Institute’s Writing Well Retreat for Researchers I’d heard wonderful things about the Thrive Institute’s Writing Well Retreat for Researchers (my doctoral advisor, Dr. Faye Belgrave is a consultant and facilitator) but have never attended a Thrive Retreat.  I will, however, be able report back first hand after the January 19-25, 2024 retreat in Chemuyil, Mexico, where I am an invited facilitator.  I know!  I know!  I can hardly wait!!!  And there’s an intersectionality connection.  The Founder and CEO of the Thrive Institute is Jasmine Abrams, PhD.  If that name rings a bell, it’s because Jasmine is the author of this excellent 2020 Social Science and Medicine article on applying intersectionality to qualitative research: Abrams, J. A., Tabaac, A., Jung, S., & Else-Quest, N. M. (2020). Considerations for employing intersectionality in qualitative health research. Social Science and Medicine, 258, 113-138. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113138 As of this writing, there are a few registration packages left.  So, if you want to do some writing in beautiful and warm Mexico in January, I’ll see you there. THREE new LGBTQ and health equity faculty positions open at the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB) Regular Saloniste, Dr. Sarah McCarthy, Magic City LGBTQ Health Studies Endowed Chair at UAB, shared that there are three new faculty positions open at UAB.  Please apply if you think it’s a good fit for your career stage and interests, and please also share with your networks.  The three positions are: