ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors briefly describe the institutional steps through which the Memphis School was established and then engage with four articles from early in their scholarly journeys. They highlight the unique qualities and legacy of the Memphis School's collaborative and field-building approach to intersectionality. The Intersection Group, which was soon joined by Lynn Weber Canon and Maxine Baca Zinn, was parlayed into a significant, five-year grant to establish the Center for Research on Women at Memphis State in 1982. Race, gender, and class were understood by the Memphis School to be social structures. The Memphis School established in these early articles what they later called the “relational” consequences of differentiation and exclusion, which play out in women of color's relation to at least three different conceptual realms: the capitalist, patriarchal, racist social order; institutions; and other structurally located groups.
