Teaching Intersectionality in the Gender Studies Program at the University of Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper argues that teaching about gender in Hong Kong must be intersectional. In August 2018, the University of Hong Kong launched the first Gender Studies major in Hong Kong. There is a long history of teaching and research on gender and sexuality at HKU and across Hong Kong, with CUHK and HKBU having established the first programmes. HKU’s major/minor builds on the long history of gender work in Hong Kong while making intersectionality central to the program’s mission, curriculum, and research. The Gender Studies Programme is centred on exploring the relationship of individuals and groups to larger cultural, social, economic and political spheres, examining how gender and sexuality intersect with other categories of social difference such as race, ethnicity, social class and ability. Gender Studies students learn to analyse systems of power critically while paying particular attention to what those systems look like in Hong Kong and Asia. The term intersectionality was coined by US legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, but its application to Hong Kong and Asia suggests this US theoretical lens can also illuminate the unique intersections in Hong Kong and Asian societies. Moreover, students use Crenshaw’s ideas to formulate new theoretical frameworks to explain the intersections in their own communities. Teaching intersectionality at HKU thus leads to new understandings of diversity and difference in Hong Kong and Asia and empowers students to enact social change on campus and into their future careers.