Institute for
Intersectionality Research & Policy
Welcome to the Institute for Intersectionality Research and Policy.
The IIRP was founded in 2005 and is the first of its kind internationally.
Our site is in development!
The Institute for Intersectionality Research and Policy (IIRP) was founded by Dr. Olena Hankivsky in 2005. IIRP anchors a vibrant cross-disciplinary community of nationally and internationally recognized researchers, scholars, government representatives, activists, and practitioners who are advancing the theory and practical applications of intersectionality in research, policy and praxis.
According to an intersectionality perspective, inequities are never the result of single, distinct factors. Rather, they are the outcome of intersections of different social locations, power relations and experiences.
Who We Are
IIRP’s activities to date – including research projects, training institutes, workshops, public dialogues, and theme groups - have anchored a vibrant interdisciplinary community of internationally recognized researchers (students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty), activists, and practitioners advancing the theory and practical applications of intersectionality in research, policy and praxis. See more about our current projects here.
What We Do
Alana Boltwood
IIRP hosted the first ever international conference on the topic of intersectionality in 2014 - Intersectionality research, policy and practice: influences, interrogations and innovations - which attracted over 300 participants from around the world.
The conference also included two pre-conference workshops – one focused specifically on applying IBPA with multi-sectoral policy analysts and the other on Indigeneity and intersectionality, led by Indigenous scholar-activists to build capacity and knowledge in the field.
Stay tuned for information about the second international conference to be held in 2026.
An international conference
A key tool for operationalizing intersectionality - the Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis (IBPA) Framework - was created in 2012 by an interdisciplinary group of graduate scholars under the leadership of Dr. Hankivsky. IBPA is a "how to" guide to conduct equity-focused policy-relevant analysis using an intersectional approach.
Since its publication, IBPA has been increasingly taken up in over 40 countries and across various disciplines, sectors, and topics. It is considered a key tool by many organizations and institutions, and the main and most ambitious effort to date to apply intersectionality in the realm of health and social policy (e.g., Ghasemi et al. 2021).
See our resources page to download the IBPA framework and a list of its applications to date.
A globally recognized framework
We are currently conducting a 4.5 year research project, funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, entitled An Intersectionality-Based Policy Analysis Framework 2.0: An improved approach for explicating the "+" in SGBA+. The project team and participants are international experts and knowledge users applying intersectionality in health and social policy. Its goal is to inform a stronger version of the original IBPA Framework (forthcoming 2025) and develop competencies for applying it. Also stay tuned for an online intersectionality community of practice!
Click here for more information about this project, and see our resources page for the first (Spring 2025) edition of our intersectionality guidance inventory.