Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, race, racism, and the law.
She is the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia University.
In addition to her position at Columbia Law School, she is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Crenshaw’s work has been foundational in critical race theory and in “intersectionality,” a term she coined to describe the double bind of simultaneous racial and gender prejudice.
Her studies, writing, and activism have identified critical issues in the perpetuation of inequality, including the “school-to-prison pipeline” for African-American children and the criminalization of behavior by Black teenage girls.
Through the Columbia Law School African American Policy Forum (AAPF), which she co-founded, Crenshaw co-authored (with Andrea Ritchie) “Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women,” which documented and drew attention to the killing of Black women and girls by police.
Crenshaw and AAPF subsequently launched the #SayHerName campaign to call attention to police violence against Black women and girls.
Crenshaw is a sought-after speaker and conducts workshops and training. She is also the co-author of “Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Under protected.”
Her writing has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the National Black Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, and the Southern California Law Review.
She is a founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory workshop and co-editor of “Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement.”
In 1981, she assisted the legal team of Anita Hill during her testimony at the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Crenshaw hosts the podcast Intersectionality Matters! In addition, she has facilitated workshops for human rights activists and for constitutional court judges. She serves on the Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Science.
