Graduation with Leadership Distinction in Research
Facets of Identity and Intersectionality
In life, every person we encounter has a unique combination of many different identities which merge together to give them a unique personal identity. Put simply, Merriam-Webster defines identity as:
1. who someone is or
2. the qualities, beliefs etc. that make a particular person or group different from others.
There are many different kinds of identity which allow us to become our own distinct person. They are aspects of ourselves that help create who we are as an individual. Some examples are race, gender, sex, culture, ethnicity, religion, language, sexuality, education level, political affiliation, ability level, economic status and marital/relationship status. Each of these identities has their own individual impact.
My research experiences have allowed me to examine the weight of several forms of identities like race, language and religion. As I was observing and assisting Tammy with her implicit bias research, she sought to inspect its burden on workplace interactions. Implicit bias is defined as the unintentional or unconscious attitudes one may have toward others based on aspects of a person's apperance. In one portion of the experiment, a participant was given a narrative from which they were supposed to recall the story and evaluate the fairness of a task. Based on context clues and the name of the character discussed, the story told to the participant suggested a certain race and gender. Combining the narratives and the Implicit Association Test (IAT), Tammy's research found that there was a correlation between implicit bias and the percieved fairness of the work-related task. Taking into account both gender and race, this taught me that it is psychologically evident that there is an identity-based bias prevalent in everyday interaction.
During the process of collecting data for a literature review titled Muslim Religious Identity Research: Future Directions in the Field , which I co-authored alongside Dr. Randy Lowell and Dr. Majdouline Aziz, I found that all existing research on Muslim religious identity seemed to fall within a few pathways. The majority of the studies I found were either too general and examined a Muslim person's general identity, focused on Muslims as an immigrant population, or examined Muslim identity in the context of terrorism. Very little attention was given to a few pressing matters: Muslim religious identity as a distinct entity, positive influences on Muslim religious identity, and Muslim religious identity in the United States. Additionally, few studies took an intersectional approach to Muslim religious identity.
After examining each identity, thinking intersectionally becomes imperative. A person's life experiences are not defined by one aspect of their identity but rather a combination of each mutually influencing eachother.
Oxford dictionaries defines intersectionality as:
The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.
Taking an intersectional view in the context of research allows for a more in-depth understanding of the many factors that play a role in an individual or minority group's experience. While these multiple identities do merge together allowing us to form our unique selves, they can also show how we are treated personally and within society. For some, this can be beneficial, like in the case of a white, heterosexual, upper-class, English-speaking, college educated man. Combinations such as these can yield a societal advantage. However, in some cases, these combinations can create a strain, as in the case of a Hispanic, homosexual, lower-class, Spanish-speaking, high school educated woman. Situations like this can lead to a "matrix of domination", where the interaction of a person's identities can cause difficulty in everyday life.
In past and recent times it has been shown that it is extremely important to work towards intersectionality. Acknowledging each identity a person may have plays a pivotal role in understanding them. Realizing that everyone's experience can vary based on characteristics that are often out of their control can offer more realistic goal setting for intervention attempts on health and social problems. By only examining one identity, a complete picture of the problem is not given. Only analyzing experiences or data in the context of racial or gender identity can produce fragmented results. But by extracting each identity a person may have, then applying intersectional thinking, problems can be much easier understood. Doing so provides a solid foundation on which to take action upon.