Monday, July 12 to Friday, July 16, 2026
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
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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Leah Marcotte, MD (ISI 2023):
It is impossible to express how much ISI has supported and influenced my work.
"Following ISI 2023, I wrote a proposal for an NIH K award — my conceptual frameworks and research strategies flowed readily from the inspiring ISI sessions and reading list. I've continued to engage with the 2025 writing retreat and the Collective at Scholar Tier. I have benefited from Collective Scholar Office Hours and I go to Salons whenever I can. Finally, at ISI 2023, Dr. Bowleg told us all that we must maintain social justice portfolios. I keep this as a regular mantra and reflection to make sure our work truly promotes health equity and benefits communities."
Registration Options
Add lasting value to your registration
You can bundle your registration with items such as:
- A 1-year subscription to Collective Scholar Tier;
- Monthly small group office hours with leading researchers;
- A year's access to thousands of dollars of edited training recordings;
- 1-on-1 consultation hours with ISI facilitators to focus on your project;
- Mini-professional photo shoot with our event photographer; or
- An academic entrepreneur package including a free review of your online branding.
Join Us at The Study
The Study is the Venue for ISI 2027
The Study is a hotel and conference venue in University City, Philadelphia.
If you're going to be staying at The Study during ISI, make sure to reserve in our room block. If you would like the option of paying in advance, please contact The Study directly.
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?
ISI was born in Philly, but the motif of a bell to call other to action is a big part of our mission.
Bells have served as motifs and symbols of freedom, suppression, and subversion throughout history.
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 changed medium.
The above was written by the artists who transformed this new wordmark.