Kimberlé Crenshaw

Kimberle W. Crenshaw

  • Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law
Education

LL.M., University of Wisconsin, 1985
J.D., Harvard Law School, 1984
B.A., Cornell University, 1981

Areas of Specialty

Constitutional Law
Civil Rights
Critical Race Theory
Intersectionality
Feminism and Law

Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. In addition to her position at Columbia Law School, she is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. 

Crenshaw’s work has been foundational in critical race theory and in “intersectionality,” a term she coined to describe the double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice. Her studies, writing, and activism have identified key issues in the perpetuation of inequality, including the “school to prison pipeline” for African American children and the criminalization of behavior among Black teenage girls. Through the Columbia Law School African American Policy Forum (AAPF), which she co-founded, Crenshaw co-authored (with Andrea Ritchie) Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women, which documented and drew attention to the killing of Black women and girls by police. Crenshaw and AAPF subsequently launched the #SayHerName campaign to call attention to police violence against Black women and girls.

Crenshaw is a sought-after speaker and conducts workshops and trainings. She is also the co-author of Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected. Her writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the National Black Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, and the Southern California Law Review. She is a founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory workshop and co-editor of Critical Race Theory: Key Documents That Shaped the Movement. In 1981, she assisted on the legal team of Anita Hill during her testimony at the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Crenshaw writes regularly for The New Republic, The Nation, and Ms. and provides commentary for media outlets, including MSNBC and NPR, and hosts the podcast Intersectionality Matters! In addition to frequent speaking engagements, training sessions, and town halls, Crenshaw has facilitated workshops for human rights activists in Brazil and in India and for constitutional court judges in South Africa. She serves on the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Science. 

Crenshaw’s groundbreaking work on intersectionality was influential in the drafting of the equality clause in the South African Constitution. She authored the background paper on race and gender discrimination for the United Nations’ World Conference on Racism in 2001, served as the rapporteur for the conference’s expert group on gender and race discrimination, and coordinated NGO efforts to ensure the inclusion of gender in the WCAR Conference Declaration.

Publications

Books

  • Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness Across the Disciplines (University of California Press, March 2019) co-edited with Luke Charles Harris, Daniel HoSang and George Lipsitz. 
  • Critical Race Theory:  The Key Writings That Formed the Movement (New York:  New Press, 1995), co-edited with Neil Gotanda, Kendall Thomas, and Gary Peller
  • Words That Wound:  Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1993) co-authored with Richard Delgado, Charles Lawrence and Mari Matsuda

Theater Productions

  • Playwright, “Harriet’s Daughters.” (National Museum of African American History and Culture, 2018)

Journals

  • Lead Editor, “Intersectionality: Theorizing Power, Empowering Theory,” Signs Journal, (Summer 2013; vol. 38 no.4).
  • Lead Editor,  “Intersectionality: Challenging Theory, Reframing Politics, and Transforming Movements, The DuBois Review, (2013; vol. 10 issue 2).
  • Co-Editor, “Why We Can’t Wait: (Re)Examining the Opportunities and Challenges for Black Women and Girls in Education (Guest Editorial),” (2016; vol. 85 issue 3). 

Articles and Book Chapters

  • “Reconstituting the Future: An Equality Amendment,” with Catharine MacKinnon, Yale Law Journal Vol. 129, 2019. 
  • “An Intersectional Critique of Tiers of Scrutiny: Beyond Either/Or Approaches to Equal Protection,” with Devon Carbado, Yale Law Journal Vol. 129, 2019.
  • “We Still Have Not Learned from Anita Hill's Testimony,” UCLA Women's Law Journal 17, 2019.
  • “The Marginalization of Harriet’s Daughters: Perpetual Crisis, Misdirected Blame, and the Enduring Urgency of Intersectionality,” Kalfou, Vol. 6, No. 1, May 2019.
  • “Race Liberalism and the Deradicalization of Racial Reform,” Harvard Law Review, Vol. 130, October 2017. 
  • “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women,” Co-Author of Brief, May 20, 2015.
  • “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected,” Report Lead Author, February 4, 2015.
  • “Intersectionality,” DuBois Review, (2014; vol. 10 issue 2). Co-authored introduction with Devon Carbado and Barbara Tomlinson.
  • “Martin Luther King Encounters Post Racialism,” Kalfou (Spring 2014; volume 1 issue 1).
  • “Toward a Theory of Intersectionality Studies: Theory, Applications and Practice,” Signs, Vol. 38, No. 4. (Summer 2013). Co-authored introduction with Sumi Cho and Leslie McCall.
  • “Keeping Up With Jim Jones: Pioneer, Taskmaster, Architect, Trailblazer,” 2013 Wisconsin Law Review Vol. 2013, Issue 703 (2013).
  • “From Private Violence to Mass Incarceration: Thinking Intersectionally About Women, Race, and Social Control,” 59 UCLA Law Review 1418 (2012).
  • “Close Encounters of Three Kinds: Reflections on Dominance Feminism and Intersectionality” 46 Tulsa Law Review 151-189 (Fall 2011).
  • “Twenty Years of Critical Race Theory: Looking Back to Move Forward,” Connecticut Law Review. Vol. 43, Issue 5. (July 2011).
  • “The Curious Resurrection of First Wave Feminism in the US Presidential Elections: An Intersectional Critique of the Rhetoric of Solidarity and Betrayal” in Sexuality, Gender and Power: Intersectional and Transnational Perspectives (edited by Anna G. Jónasdóttir, Valerie Bryson, and Kathleen B. Jones, Routledge, 2011).
  • “Post Script: Intersectionality Travels,” in Framing Intersectionality (edited by Helma Lutz, Maria Teresa Herrera Vivar, and Linda Supik, Ashgate Publishing, 2011).
  • “Directions For New Scholarship in Black Studies,” International Journal Of Africana Studies Vol. 14, Issue 1, 70-74, (Spring/Summer 2008)
  • “Framing Affirmative Action,” Mich. L. Rev. First Impressions Vol. 105, Issue 123 (2007),  http://www.michiganlawreview.org/assets/fi/105/crenshaw.pdf
  • Féminismes: Penser la pluralité. (Paris:  Harmattan, 2005), contributed to, author by Dominique Fougeyrollas-Schwebel, Elénore Lépinard, and Eleni Varikas 
  • Women of Color at the Center: Selections from the Third National Conference on Women of Color and the Law; Reprinted in Classic Papers on Violence Against Women (edited by Raquel Kennedy Bergen, et al, Allyn & Bacon, 2004).
  • A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Law, in Philosophical Problems in the Law, 4th ed., 339-343 (edited by David M. Adams, Wadsworth, 2005).
  • Book Chapter, “Traffic at the Crossroads: Multiple Oppressions,” Sisterhood is Forever: The Women’s Anthology for a New Millennium (edited by Robin Morgan, Washington Square Press, 2003).
  • Background Paper, “Documento para o encontro de especialistas em aspectos da discriminacao racial relativos ao genero” Revistas Estudos Feministats. Scielo, Brazil (2002)
  • Book Chapter, “The First Decade:  Critical Reflections, or ‘A Foot in the Closing Door,’" Crossroads, Directions and a New Critical Race Theory (edited by Francisco Valdes, et. al., Temple University Press, 2002).]
  • “The First Decade:  Critical Reflections, or ‘A Foot in the Closing Door,’" Critical Race Studies, 49 UCLA Law Review, Vol. 49 Issue 5, 1343-72 (2002)
  • “A Report of the Expert Group Meeting on Gender and Racial Discrimination: note / by the Secretary-General” A Geneva: UN, (A/CONF.189/PC.2/2, 11 May 2001). 
  • “Gender-Related Aspects of Race Discrimination,” Background paper for Expert Meeting on Gender and Racial Discrimination, Zagreb, Croatia (EM/GRD/2000/WP.1, 21-24 November 2000).
  • Book Chapter, “Were the Critics Right about Rights? Reassessing the American Debate about Rights in the Post-Reform Era,” Beyond Rights Talk and Culture Talk: Comparative Essays on the Politics of Rights and Culture (edited by Mahmood Mamdani, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2000).
  • “Opening Remarks: Reclaiming Yesterday’s Future,” UCLA Law Review Vol. 47, Issue 6, 1459-65 (2000).
  • Foreword, in Black Men on Race, Gender and Sexuality: A Critical Reader (edited by Devon W. Carbado, New York: NYU Press, 1999).
  • “Playing Race Cards: Constructing a Pro-active Defense of Affirmative Action,” National Black Law Journal Vol. 16, Issue 2,196-214 (1998).    
  • “The Contradictions of Mainstream Constitutional Theory,” (with Gary Peller) UCLA Law Review Vol. 45, Issue 6, 1683-1715 (1998). Symposium: Voices of the People: Essays on Constitutional Democracy In Memory of Professor Julian N. Eule.
  • Book Chapter, “Color-blind Dreams and Racial Nightmares:  Reconfiguring Racism in the Post-Civil Rights Era,” Birth of A Nation's Hood:  Gaze, Script and Spectacle in the O.J. Simpson Trial (edited by Toni Morrison and Claudia Brosky LaCour, New York: Pantheon Books, 1997).
  • “The Scope and Content of Equality” co-authored with Elizabeth M. Schneider.  Center for Applied Legal Studies, Seminar on Crucial Issues Relating to Chapter 111 the Constitution, January, 1995.
  • "Panel Presentation on Cultural Battery," University of Toledo Law Review, Vol. 25, Issue 4, 891-901 (1994)
  • “Reel Time/Real Justice,” (with Gary Peller) Denver University Law Review Vol. 70, 283-96 (1993)  Colloquy:  Racism in the Wake of the Los Angeles Riots.
  • “Race, Gender and Sexual Harassment,” Southern California Law Review Vol. 65, Issue 1467-76 (March 1992)
  • “Whose Story is it Anyway?  Feminist and Antiracist Appropriations of Anita Hill,” Race(ing) Justice, (En)gender(ing) Power:  Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas and the Construction of Social Reality 402-440,( edited by Toni Morrison, New York: Pantheon Books, 1992).
  • “Mapping the Margins:  Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color,” Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, Issue 6, 1241-99 (1991).  
  • “Beyond Racism and Misogyny:  The First Amendment and 2 Live Crew,” Boston Review (December 1991).
  • “Toward a Race Conscious Pedagogy in Legal Education (Foreword:  Voting Rights:  Strategies for Legal and Community Action” National Black Law Journal Vol. 11, Issue 1, 1-14 (1989).
  • “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex:  A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” Chicago Law Forum Vol. 1989, Issue 1, 139-67 (1989); reprinted in The Politics of Law:  A Progressive Critique 195-217 (2nd ed., edited by David Kairys, New York:  Pantheon Books, 1990), Feminist Legal Theory (Bartlett & Kennedy, ed., 1992), Critical Race Feminism, (edited by Adrien Wing, NYU Press, 2003), and Framing Intersectionality (edited by Helma Lutz, Maria Teresa Herrera Vivar, and Linda Supik, Ashgate Publishing, 2011).
  • “Race, Reform, and Retrenchment:  Transformation and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law,” Harvard Law Review Vol. 101, Issue 7, 1331-87 (May 1988); reprinted in Critical Legal Thought:  An American-German Debate (edited by Christian Joerges and David M. Trubek, Baden-Baden:  Nomos, 1989); reprinted in Anti-Discrimination Law (M. Grudden, ed., 1992)

Honors and Awards

W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, The Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University

2024

Inductee, National Women’s Hall of Fame

2024

Ebony 100 and Ebony Humanitarian of the Year

2024, 2015

AALS Triennial Award for Lifetime Service to Legal Education and the Legal Profession

2023

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Award, Women’s Section, Association of American Law Schools

2023

Elected Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

2023

Association of American Law Schools Triennial Award for Lifetime Service to Legal Education and the Legal Profession

2021

Honorary Doctorate, University of Bayreuth

2021

Honorary Doctorate, KU Leuven

2020

Honorary Doctorate, York University

2019

Honorary Doctorate, Smith College

2018

Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize

2017

Lucy Terry Prince Unsung Heroine Award

1995

Fulbright Distinguished Chair for Latin America

March 2006–January 2008

Alphonse Fletcher Fellowship

2008-2009

In-residence Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science at Stanford University

2008-2009

ACLU Ira Glasser Racial Justice Fellowship

2005-2007

Professor of the Year at UCLA Law School

1991, 1994

Activities and Affiliations

  • Sundance Institute, 2021–Present
  • VDay, 2025–Present
  • AAPF  Social Justice Writers Retreat

Featured Quote

“Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there.”

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