It has now been three days of conference, and I am happy to say that we have been learning a lot! Today, what interested me the most was the discussion on intersectionality. This was a new term for me, though it expressed an idea that is quite familiar. As described by Dr. M. Laura Serra, it is “quality of life and standard of living factorized by several structural parameters, including age, class, gender, cast, or race, sexuality, disability, urban/rural etc. Those structural elements intersect with each other, compounding the experience of inclusion. When negatively impacted, outcomes experienced by people would include marginalization, discrimination, exclusion; and enhancing the risk of violence, abuse, and exploitation.” Therefore, the different layers of one’s identity characterize the intersectionality of their life.

Given the idea of intersectionality, oppression can take many forms, or be “organized” in many forms.  While its acknowledgement might make legal cases more complex to solve, due to the uniqueness of each case to the individual, the model presented by Dr. Serra provides a tool to demystify the oppressive system that results in these negative outcomes (see below). Though she proposed the idea that different social movements “can work together to improve society by taking into account what intersectionality is” (which, as she expressed, might be the ultimate way of fighting against discrimination of all sorts, and I agree), I also understand that intersectionality is not unique to anyone. For this reason, it is also a way of fighting against stigma that surrounds disability and/or individuals of different backgrounds.

While this presentation was focused in the field of disability, I am also interested in what this means in terms of different cultures and ethnicities, the subject of focus in my PhD.