KimberlĂ© Crenshaw is a leading authority in the areas of civil rights; Black feminist legal theory; and race, racism, and the law. She is perhaps best known for developing the concepts and coining the terms of “critical race theory” and “intersectionality,” the latter of which influenced the drafting of the equality clause in the South African Constitution. In 1996, Crenshaw cofounded the African American Policy Forum, a gender and racial justice legal think tank, and in 2011, she founded the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School.
Professional positions
- 1995âpresent: Full professor (1995â2019) and Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor (2019âpresent) of Law, Columbia Law School
- 1986âpresent: Acting (1986â1991), full (1991â2017), and Distinguished (2017âpresent) Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law
Notable publications
- Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams, with Priscilla Ocen and Jyoti Nanda. 2015. Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Unprotected. New York, NY: African American Policy Forum/Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies.
- Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams, and Andrea J. Ritchie, with Rachel Anspach, Rachel Gilmer, and Luke Harris. 2015. Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality against Black Women. New York, NY: African American Policy Forum/Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies.
- Crenshaw, Kimberlé, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas, eds. 1995. Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement. New York, NY: The New Press.
- Matsuda, Mari J., Charles R. Lawrence III, Richard Delgado, and Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw. 1993. Words that Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Degrees
- LLM, University of Wisconsin
- JD, Harvard Law School
- BA, Cornell University
