9. Intersectionality, Solidarity, and Ultimately Flourishing

Subjugated Voices and Religion - Souad T. Ali

Sarah E. Robinson [+-]
Pacific Lutheran University and Santa Clara University
Sarah E. Robinson, also Robinson-Bertoni, is a scholar of religion, ethics, environment, and food. She researches sustainable agriculture in religious contexts. She has served as a professor for over six years at Pacific Lutheran University, Santa Clara University, and Dominican University of CA, teaching courses in environmental studies, first-year writing, women’s and gender studies, and religion. Robinson serves in the Steering Committee for the Religion and Food unit of the American Academy of Religion. She serves also as a Board Member-at-Large for the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature, and Culture. For the American Academy of Religion, Western Region, she has been conference manager, Women’s Caucus liaison to the Board, Regional Student Director to the national-level Student Committee, and unit chair for Ecology and Religion, Graduate Student Professional Development, and Women and Religion. Her writing appears in the Springer Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics; Columbia University Press’ Religion, Food, and Eating in North America; Oxford University Press’ Flourishing: Comparative Religious Environmental Ethics; Routledge’s Key Thinkers on the Environment; and the journal Religions and the Journal of Feminist Theology. She co-edited the 2021 volume Valuing Lives, Healing Earth: Religion, Gender, and Life on Earth, highlighting global women striving for community health and religious integrity in justice seeking ways. She continues to research, write, present, and publish, while focusing on work as Advocacy Manager for Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light.

Description

Sarah E. Robinson’s essay, “Intersectionality, Solidarity, and Ultimately Flourishing,” describes the importance of intersectionality and solidarity. She writes about these subjects in the context of her academic background in religious studies, and the current political climate since the 2016 Presidential election in the United States. Robinson draws upon Kimberlé Crenshaw’s original definition of intersectionality, stating that race, religion, gender, class, sexuality, and age cannot be considered separately when examining social issues. Academics should dissect the socialized nature of many of these categories and how they function within society’s power structures to better their research and communities. Solidarity, Robinson describes, is as crucial as intersectionality because solidarity provides voices to the voiceless. It is the obligation of those with privilege to support movements for liberation from oppression. Using the example of Rosemary Radford Ruether, a theologian and prominent figure in religious studies during the late 20th and early 21st century, Robinson highlights the need for the privileged to directly engage with the oppressed to gain perspective and increase the impact and effectiveness of their activism. By combining intersectionality and solidarity, individuals and communities will flourish.

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Citation

Robinson, Sarah E. . 9. Intersectionality, Solidarity, and Ultimately Flourishing. Subjugated Voices and Religion. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. Aug 2025. ISBN 9781800506725. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=46628. Date accessed: 21 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.46628. Aug 2025

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