Prof. Crenshaw Awarded Highly Selective Fletcher Foundation Fellowship

July 21, 2008 

The Fletcher Foundation announced the recipients of this year’s fellowship award in early July. Professor Crenshaw, Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum and professor of law at University of California, LA and Columbia University, was chosen with three other scholars for this newly formed fellowship by philanthropist and businessman Alphonse Fletcher Jr. Created on the 50^th anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education in 2004, the $50,000 award is given to scholars working on race relations or African American culture.

Prof. Crenshaw plans to use this generous stipend to research on the problematic concept of colorblindness and titled the project, “Shattering the Colorblind Ruse: Recapturing the Legacy of Brown.” This research builds on her previous scholarship on the intersectional nature of race, gender and class when discussing discrimination and legal matters.  The award also coincides with the 20^th anniversary of Prof. Crenshaw coining the term “intersectionality,” in the scholarly and legal arena. The concept has since taken root far beyond its inception, with intersectionality programs in Swedish universities and activists utilizing this concept in order to create a broader front in the social justice movement. 

Other recipients of this year’s award are Stacy L. Leeds, a professor of law and director of Kansas University’s Tribal Law and Government Center; Stanford History professor and founding director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute Clayborne Carson; and associate professor of art history and archaeology at Columbia University Kellie Jones.  

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