Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies Anne Lacsamana was invited by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to present at the “Moving Towards Equality: Mapping Women’s Achievements and Challenges Around the World” conference. The conference took place in Cambridge, Mass., in December.
Lacsamana was among 16 scholars, policymakers, and activists invited to the conference. She presented her research on the “Feminism, Intersectionality, and Inclusion” panel, discussing the evolution of the concept of “intersectionality” in feminist thought and noting its widespread usage while also acknowledging its potential analytical shortcomings, especially in relation to women’s material conditions.
Contextualizing her remarks within the current neoliberal period of what has been described as “Lean In,” “trickle-down,” or “1 % feminism,” Lacsamana argued that historical materialism continued to offer a better alternative for understanding the structural underpinnings of “race,” class, gender, sexuality, and so on when compared to contemporary intersectional analyses.
According to its website, “The American Academy serves the nation as a champion of scholarship, civil dialogue, and useful knowledge. As one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, the Academy convenes leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing the nation and the world.”
