Journal Article

Evolving Intersectionality Within Public Health: From Analysis to Action

Bowleg, Lisa

2021

Overview

Intersectionality, an indispensable critical theoretical framework for public health,1,2 is ideally suited to address the current \"deadly confluence of health, economic, and racial crises\" (Poteat, p. 91). Aligned with my invocation of intersectionality to lambaste the \"We're all in this together\" tropes of the COVID-19 era,3 this special section affirms an essential need for \"an intersectional public health lens that . . . embrace[s] rather than obscure[s] the heterogeneity of people's lived experience\" (Elnaiem, p. 93; quote p. 94) with new public health crises such as COVID19, and ongoing ones such as police brutality and HIV/AIDS (Aguayo-Romero, p. 101; Elnaiem; Poteat). The section also ventures into uncharted terrains such as epigenetics (Zota and VanNoy, p. 104) and artificial intelligence (Bauer and Lizotte, p. 98), and highlights the conceptual and methodological challenges of intersectionality research from the perspective of a group of National Institutes of Health (NIH) extramural research administrators (Alvidrez et al., p. 95).Informed by Collins's conceptualization of intersectionality as a \"broadbased knowledge project\"-a field of study, an analytical strategy, and critical praxis4(p3)-I characterize intersectionality's inroads into public health and its potential for addressing public health crises as a series of overlapping waves. Wave 1 was and is definitional, focused on intersectionality's history, core tenets, and relevance to public health. Wave 2 reflects the mainstreaming and flattening of intersectionality as it travels through traditional research organizations such as the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and NIH. Wave 3 is analytical, reflecting the theoretical application of intersectionality to current public health crises. In this editorial, I highlight how this special section spans these waves and preview a fourth wave essential to addressing and resolving the current spate of multiple and interlocking public health crises.

• Publisher: American Public Health Association
• Subject: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome / Administrators / AIDS / Artificial intelligence / Black people / Collins, Patricia Hill / Community Health / Concept formation / Contact tracing / Coronaviruses / COVID-19 / Crises / Economic crisis / Epigenetics / Excessive force / Feminism / Fibroids / Gays & lesbians / Health research / Health Status Disparities / Health surveillance / Heterogeneity / HIV / Human immunodeficiency virus / Humans / Inequality / Institutes / Interconnections / Intersectionality / Intersectoral Collaboration / LGBTQ people / Mainstreaming / Medical research / Methodological problems / Minority Groups / Other Race/Ethnicity / Police / Police brutality / Public health / Public Health Administration / Public Health Practice / Race / Racism / Research - organization & administration / Research centers / Social exclusion / Socioeconomic Factors / Sociology / Special Sections / Transgender persons / Ventures