Understanding psychology's resistance to intersectionality theory using a framework of epistemic exclusion and invisibility

By Isis H. Settles, Leah R. Warner, Nicole T. Buchanan, Martinque K. Jones. Journal of Social Issues, 2020

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Although intersectionality has become part of the every-day lexicon, the field of psychology has demonstrated resistance to the theory, which we argue reflects epistemic exclusion. Epistemic exclusion is the devaluation of some scholarship as illegitimate and certain scholars as lacking credibility. We suggest that intersectionality has been epistemically excluded because it challenges dominant psychological norms about the scientific process and has been most readily endorsed by psychologists from marginalized groups. We provide evidence that epistemic exclusion has occurred through formal means (e.g., exclusion from mainstream journals) and informal processes (e.g., repeated misrepresentation of the theory). We use visibility theory to highlight the role of disciplinary power in this process, such that dominant psychologists act as gate-keepers. Finally, we discuss how the epistemic exclusion of intersectionality is a barrier to social issues scholarship and social justice in psychology, and offer structural recommendations for intersectionality’s epistemic inclusion . Psychologists’ awareness of intersectionality continues to grow as the tenets of the theory and the term itself form part of the everyday lexicon. Nevertheless, intersectionality scholars maintain

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/94c3f808e48c9faaa1d55ab8798522ff44c21e9c

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