Toward an Understanding of Intersectionality Methodology: A 30-Year Literature Synthesis of Black Women’s Experiences in Higher Education

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s scholarship on Black women has been the springboard for numerous education studies in which researchers use intersectionality as a theoretical framework; however, few have considered the possibilities of intersectionality as a methodological tool. In this literature synthesis, the authors (a) examined studies about Black women in higher education that had been published in the past 30 years to understand how those scholars applied intersectionality across Crenshaw’s three dimensions (i.e., structural, political, and representational) and (b) advanced a set of four strategies, arguably providing a guide for engaging “intersectionality methodology,” what the authors coin as “IM.” Implications for higher education research and social science research broadly are also presented.