CFP: Intersectionality Research in Counseling Psychology (original) (raw)

Calls about the importance of intersectionality studies have circulated with increasing frequency across many areas of psychology, including counseling psychology (e.g., Parent, DeBlaere, & Moradi, 2013). Intersectionality – or the study of how multiple social systems intersect to produce and sustain complex inequalities – presents unique challenges to psychological research and practice that have been well documented by psychological scientists (Cole, 2009; Bowleg, 2008). Persistent in these discussions are questions about how precisely to implement an intersectional approach conceptually and methodologically in the context of psychological science (Eagly & Riger, 2014). There has been a notable uptake in counseling psychology research exploring “multiple” and “intersecting” social identities (e.g., Sarno, Mohr, Jackson, & Fassinger, 2015). However, the degree to which this work aligns with an intersectional approach’s roots in Black feminist thought and its promise as a framework for conceptualizing the co-production of social inequalities and for building coalitions to challenge these systems is unclear. This special section of the Journal of Counseling Psychology invites papers that attend to this challenge and opportunity for realignment of intersectionality in counseling psychology research.