Reading studies of elite schools though an intersectional lens

Intersectionality has become a “go to” concept for many scholars who seek to understand the complex unjust configurations of the social. However, it has not been deployed to examine elite schools' complicity in such unjust configurations. Or so it appears. We begin with a short history of the concept intersectionality, identify the central debates about it, clarify some of its different expressions and note the current conundrums that it faces. We then demonstrate that many recent studies of elite schools actually have an intersectional sensibility—even though it is not stated as such. We show that this sensibility is expressed in various ways some with more analytical potency than others.