Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 22, 2025

Monitoring Spatial Segregation in Surface Colonizing Microbial Populations
Published on: October 29, 2016
Intersectionality on the go: The diffusion of Black feminist knowledge across disciplinary and geographical borders
1Department of Sociology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Abstract:
Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term "intersectionality" in 1989 as a critique of feminist and critical race scholarship's neglect of-respectively-race and gender. Since then, the concept has been interpreted and reinterpreted to appeal to new disciplinary, geographical, and sociocultural audiences, generating heated debates over its appropriation and continued political significance. Drawing on all 3,807 publications in Scopus that contain the word "intersectionality" in the title, abstract, or keywords, we map the spread of intersectionality in academia through its citations. Network analysis reveals the contours of its diffusion among the 6,098 scholars in our data set, while automated text analysis, manual coding, and the close reading of publications reveal how the application and interpretation of intersectional thinking has evolved over time and space. We find that the diffusion network exhibits communities that are not well demarcated by either discipline or geography. Communities form around one or a few highly referenced scholars who introduce intersectionality to new audiences while reinterpreting it in a way that speaks to their research interests. By examining the microscopic interactions of publications and citations, our complex systems approach is able to identify the macroscopic patterns of a controversial concept's diffusion.
Related Concept Videos
Diffusion
Diffusion
Facilitated Diffusion
In this process, substrates such as organic compounds and ions interact with a transporter on one side, triggering conformational changes in proteins that enable...
Theories of Dissolution: Diffusion Layer Model
This process starts with a thin layer, saturated with the drug, forming at the interface between the solid and liquid. The solute then diffuses from this layer into the main solution. The Noyes-Whitney equation suggests that the rate of dissolution relies on the diffusion...
Passive Diffusion: Overview and Kinetics
When administered orally, drugs establish a substantial concentration gradient between the gastrointestinal (GI) lumen and the bloodstream, expediting...
Relationship Formation

