Backtalker: A Conversation with Kimberlé Crenshaw

On May 2, 2026, Dr. Roxane Gay, the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers University, hosted a full-day conference on memoir, "Writing a Life." The keynote featured Dr. Gay in conversation with Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, about Dr. Crenshaw's new memoir, "Backtalker." Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, race, racism, and the law. She was a founder and has been a leader in the intellectual movement called Critical Race Theory and is also known for introducing and developing the concept of intersectionality. She is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and the cofounder and Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum. Crenshaw writes regularly for The New Republic, The Nation, and Ms., hosts the podcast Intersectionality Matters!, and has appeared as a commentator on media outlets including MSNBC and NPR. The Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair represents a collaboration between the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information, Institute for Women’s Leadership, and Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. To learn more about the chair, visit https://iwl.rutgers.edu/gloria-steine...