For your major paper for this course, you will be completing an intersectionality-based policy analysis (Hankivsky, et al., 2014). This is an exploration of how a local, organizational, state, or national/federal policy addresses the multiple axes of marginalization of the people who the policy affects. Intersectionality is a concept rooted in the scholarship and activism of Black feminists (e.g., Crenshaw, 1989). You will be reading an article applying intersectionality to health policy in Canada in Week 1 (Hankivsky, 2014). Although intersectionality began in legal scholarship and activism, psychologists have deployed these ideas in their research and practice (e.g., Cole, 2009). Your sources for this paper should be 10-15 peer-reviewed journal articles or scholarly book chapters. Your paper should be at least ten pages (not counting references), double-spaced, 12 pt. font, with APA style in-text citations and references. I have linked to the Lehman Library databases, feminist psychology journals, and other resources for the paper under Resources for Policy Analysis Paper on D2L under Content. As you gather sources, you might use the term intersectionality, but you might also use the questions in the Hankivsky (2012) document to imagine intersections that policy makers may not have considered. For example, if you chose the topic of abortion access, you might consider how the recent Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization (2022) affects people with disabilities who seek abortions. This analysis might address how gender, disability, social class, and urban/rural impact access to healthcare.
Here are additional questions that might prompt your thinking in my words: How do intersecting oppressions in this policy? Are there overlapping groups and how does this impact the policy? What is it like for any specific person to navigate this policy? Is the problem or policy being defined at the individual level leaving out social, institutional, and/or structural factors? Are individual people being held to greater accountability than the institution? Is the power of the individual being overestimated?
If you would like to get weekly feedback on your work, you may submit a series of stepwise assignment drafts culminating in your final paper. These are optional assignments, but they should keep you on track to complete the paper. Here are the weekly assignments:
Week 1
Choose a policy that you would like to analyze. Describe the policy and provide a link to the text of the policy if that is available. Your policy on its surface may appear to solely address gender or sexuality, but the purpose of this assignment is to explore how the policy might be limited because it only addresses some factors of diversity. Some potential policies and topics include the following: abortion access, breast/chest feeding, childcare access, family medical leave, mandated reporting policies, retirement, sex education, sexual violence, substance abuse, Title IX procedures, transgender inclusion in sports, etc. This is not an exhaustive list but should give you an idea of what topics you could pursue.
Week 2
Answer/address question 2 of IBPA description questions. “What is the policy ‘problem’ under consideration?” (Hankivsky, et al. 2014, p. 4). There are sub-questions for question 2 included in the Hankivsky (2012) document under Resources for Policy Analysis Paper in D2L Content (p. 39).
Week 3
Answer/address question 1 of IBPA description questions. “What knowledge, values, and experiences do you bring to this area of policy analysis?” (Hankivsky, et al., 2014, p.4). There are sub-questions for question 1 included in the Hankivsky (2012) document under Resources for Policy Analysis Paper in D2L Content (p. 39).
Week 4, 5, & 6
For these three weeks, you can answer questions of your choice to answer/address. Some questions may be more relevant than others given what you have read.
Week 7 & 8
Use the remaining two weeks to revise and polish your paper. I have reduced the required reading these weeks, so you have more time to dedicate to your paper.