Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw’s path from ‘Backtalker’ to legal scholar

About this episode

Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw discusses her new memoir and her influential ideas on intersectionality and critical race theory.

Crenshaw named two of the most contested ideas in American politics: intersectionality and critical race theory. Her new book is called ‘Backtalker: An American Memoir.’ It takes us to her childhood in Canton, Ohio, and along her path through Cornell, Harvard Law, and the University of Wisconsin, where, in 1988, as a graduate student, she sketched a diagram of an intersection to explain how race, class, and gender overlap. She spoke with Tonya Mosley about these moments in her career, and how she’s thinking about America’s 250th anniversary. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy

People in this episode

Host: Tonya Mosley

Guest: Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw

Topics covered

• intersectionality
• critical race theory
• American politics
• memoir
• legal scholarship
• race
• gender

Keywords

• intersectionality
• critical race theory
• Backtalker
• memoir
• Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
• Tonya Mosley
• American politics
• race
• gender

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NPR, Cornell, Harvard Law, University of Wisconsin

Books & works: Backtalker: An American Memoir

Places: Canton, Ohio

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