Intersectionality Beyond Theory
Coming to Terms with our Embodied ‘Ambiguousness’ and the Courage to Choose the Middle Space
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v38i2.148665Nøgleord:
Intersectionality, Intersectional identity, Center and Margin, bell hooks, Positionality, ReflexivityResumé
This article emerges from a sustained transnational dialogue between two cisgender female, first-generation immigrant scholars of Japanese origin – one identifying as Nikkei in Sweden and the other as mixed-race Japanese (white) in Canada. Through collective autobiographical inquiry, we explore what we term a middle space – a site of ambiguity, tension, and transformation where intersectionality is both theorized and embodied. We situate our personal narratives within broader structural frameworks to contribute to scholarship that treats intersectionality as both theory and praxis – a tool for critical reflection and social transformation. Guided by critical feminist and collective methodologies, our writing emphasizes reflexivity, dialogue, and the interrogation of power dynamics in knowledge production. Our lived experiences reveal how positionalities shaped by sociocultural and institutional contexts resist binary categorizations of privilege and marginalization. These identities are continuously negotiated and inform our academic and personal engagements. We underscore the importance of collective methodologies in illuminating complex positionalities and advancing intersectional feminist scholarship. By inviting readers into our middle space, we offer a site of intersectional engagement, activism, and reflexivity where theory meets lived experience, and where shifting dynamics of power and identity are critically examined.
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