Forthcoming Book Project- Intersectional Solidarity: Black Women and the Politics of Group Consciousness (Oxford University Press)
Black women have been credited for Democratic wins in a number of recent consequential elections. Yet outside of the post-election glow, Black women’s interests tend not to attract a great deal of attention from politicians, media, or the public more broadly.
In Intersectional Solidarity, Chaya Y. Crowder looks at the question of what prompts people to prioritize issues that affect Black women, and when? In particular, she challenges the notion that racial or gender consciousness alone shape political preferences and instead argues that intersectional group consciousness shapes political behavior. Crowder contends that a combination of race, gender, sexuality, and class-based consciousness influences political behavior, particularly when it comes to issues that affect individuals at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities. Further, she introduces an “intersectional solidarity index” (ISI), informed by work in social psychology, political science, and Black feminist theory. Crowder applies her four-item scale to capture group consciousness at the intersection of race, gender, class and sexuality, but she uses it particularly to explore what groups demonstrate solidarity with Black women, and why.
By measuring intersectional solidarity, the book provides insight into the possibilities for intersectional politics and demonstrates that in order to fully understand how people come to care about issues that affect Black women, scholars are required to ask new questions.
Her book is available for pre-order here.
Selected Publications
Crowder, Chaya along with Christine Slaughter and Christina Greer. “Black Women: Keepers of Democracy, the Democratic Process, and the Democratic Party.” Politics & Gender. (2023)
Crowder, Chaya. “Doing More Than Thanking Black Women: The Influence of Intersectional Solidarity on Public Support for Policies.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy. (2022)
Crowder, Chaya. “When #BlackLivesMatter at the Women’s March: A Study of the Emotional Influence of Racial Appeals on Instagram.” Politics, Groups, and Identities. (2021)
Crowder, Chaya. “Following Black Lives Matter and Mainstream African-American Interest Groups on Social Media: An Intersectional Analysis of Black Organizational Activism on Twitter.” National Review of Black Politics, (2020)
Crowder, Chaya and Candis Watts Smith. “From Suffragists to Pink Pussy Hats: In Search of Intersectional Solidarity.” PS: Political Science & Politics, (2020)
Crowder, Chaya. “June’s rallies for black transgender lives can change attitudes and policies. Here’s how.” Washington Post. June 25, 2020.
Crowder, Chaya. “From race to #MeToo, what’s changed between Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford- and what hasn’t.” The Washington Post: Monkey Cage. (2018)
Strolovitch, Dara Z., and Chaya Y. Crowder. “Respectability, Anti-Respectability, and Intersectionally Responsible Representation.” PS: Political Science & Politics 51.2 (2018): 340-344.
Strolovitch, Dara Z., and Chaya Y. Crowder. “Naming Rites for Naming Wrongs: What We Talk about When We Talk about Woodrow Wilson.” Perspectives on Politics 14.3 (2016): 770-775.
Working Papers
Crowder, Chaya, with Elsa Voytas. “From Black Wall Street to Reparations: The Role of Racial Justice Museums in Shaping Public Opinion” (Under Review)
Crowder, Chaya and Christine Slaughter and Christina Greer. “Bootstrap Blackness: Black Men, Conservatism, and Party Politics.”
Crowder, Chaya. “The Influence of Jazz Diplomacy on Racial Perceptions of the American Image: Evidence from Argentina, Brazil, Pakistan and Turkey.”
Crowder, Chaya, with Claudia Sandoval. “Racial Solidarity in Black and Brown: The Politics of Black and Latino Intergroup Relations.”